A snapshot of biomarkers of exposure for environmental monitoring

Metabolomics provides a valuable tool for understanding the magnitude of the environmental exposure to chemicals. In this chapter, an overview of the biomarkers information reported along this book is presented. The availability of biomarkers of exposure for different kind of contaminant is explored and discussed. A table with the type of contaminant, biomarkers found, effects observed, and pathways disrupted is presented using fish as a model organism. Amino acids and lipids were found to be the type of molecules most altered due to contaminant exposure. Among them, phenylalanine, Ƴ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), tryptophan, phosphatidylcholine, lysophosphatidylcholine, and phosphatidylserine were the most sensitive biomarkers. They may be pointed out as potential “universal biomarkers” of general environmental quality. The metabolites altered due to contaminant exposure were linked to the metabolic pathways affected. A “disrupted pathway ranking” was established with purine metabolism as the most altered one. The information included here will serve as a guideline to interpret data and discovering mode of action.