Toxicogenomics: An Overview with Special Reference to Genetic and Genomic Approaches to the Identification of Toxic Effects

Abstract

Toxicology, the study of poisons, has been explored widely since ages immemorial. However, only recently, workers have begun to apply the state-of-the-art “omics” technologies to study toxicological problems. This has led to exciting possibilities in the field of toxicology and holds promise to revolutionize the study of poisons and their effects in ways more than one. However, with all these advantages, this new technique also has the disadvantage of being exorbitantly costly as well as low in reproducibility. Hence, the results obtained from toxicogenomic techniques need to be vindicated by classical cytogenetic and molecular biology methods before reaching any tangible conclusion. This article gives a glimpse of the genomic and genetic components used extensively in contemporary toxicological studies and elucidates how an appropriate interaction between the two approaches can help workers to generate high-quality data and reach proper conclusions by avoiding possible pitfalls. Keywords: chromosomal aberrations; microarray; micronucleus; miRNA; toxicogenomics; toxicology; single nucleotide polymorphism