In recent years, the implication of genomics into ecotoxicological studies has been studied closely to allow a better understanding of organism’s responses to environmental contaminants including engineering nanomaterials (ENMs). ENMs are increasingly produced for various applications including cosmetics, electronics, sports equipment, biomedicine and agriculture. Because of their small size, ENMs possess chemical or physical characteristics improved compared to the corresponding macro-sized material. As their application expend, the release of manufactured ENMs into the environment is likely to increase and concern over impacts for the aquatic ecosystem is growing. Several studies reported deleterious effect of ENMs to aquatic organisms, but there is little information about the molecular mechanisms of toxicity. The development of ecotoxicogenomic approaches will improve the characterization of cellular and molecular modes of action of ENMs to aquatic organisms and allow a better prediction of contaminants toxicity. This paper presents an overview of transciptomic/proteomic studies in freshwater and marine organisms exposed to ENMs. Overall, induction of gene expression in relations to defense mechanisms, immune responses, growth and reproduction were measured after ENMs exposures of organisms, but with different patterns depending on exposure duration and concentrations used. In addition, some studies reported a positive correlation between gene expression and cellular modifications, but not at the individual level.

近年来，已经对基因组学在生态毒理学研究中的意义进行了深入研究，以更好地理解生物体对包括工程纳米材料（ENM）在内的环境污染物的反应。ENM越来越多地用于各种应用，包括化妆品，电子产品，运动器材，生物医学和农业。由于其尺寸小，与相应的大尺寸材料相比，ENM具有改善的化学或物理特性。随着其应用范围的扩大，人造ENM释放到环境中的可能性可能会增加，并且对水生生态系统的影响的关注也与日俱增。几项研究报道了ENM对水生生物的有害作用，但是关于毒性分子机制的信息很少。生态毒理基因组学方法的发展将改善ENM对水生生物的细胞和分子作用方式的表征，并更好地预测污染物的毒性。本文概述了暴露于ENM的淡水和海洋生物中的转录/蛋白质组学研究。总的来说，在生物体暴露于ENMs之后，测量了与防御机制，免疫应答，生长和繁殖相关的基因表达诱导，但是根据暴露持续时间和所用浓度的不同，其诱导方式也不同。此外，一些研究报道了基因表达与细胞修饰之间存在正相关，但在个体水平上却没有。