Metals from cell to environment: Connecting Metallomics with other omics

Vijeta Singh*and Kusum Verma

Research activities and data collection of metals present in living organisms are called as “metallomics”.

In metallomics, biomolecules incorporating metal ions viz. metalloenzymes and metalloproteins, are

known as “metallomes”. Metallomics aims to identify metallomes of living organisms and to annotate the

physiological signifi cance as well as the biological functions. However, in order to ascertain metallomics

to be the part of biometal science, recent analytical technologies like chemical speciation are required to

analyze the metallomes. Environmental applications like bioleaching, phytoremediation of soil by using

microbes, and to deal with the uptake, transport, storage of trace metals necessary for protein functions

and biomarkers identifi cation under ecotoxicological studies really require metallomics involvement. As

an interdisciplinary research area, metallomics cover plant and animal physiology, nutrition and become

a potential candidate in pharmacology, biogeochemistry and clinical chemistry. Metallomics uses

analytical and spectroscopic methods to fi nd the quantitative and qualitative information about metal

ions that are present as ligands a well multifaceted biological matrix in trace amounts or occur as noncovalent complexes in order to perform different biological processes. Latest spectroscopic methods

along with in-silico approaches including bioinformatics are the important tools needed for research

activities in metallomics. The present review highlights the basics of metallomics in biological sciences

and its emergence as a novel omics era in relation to other fi elds. Besides the above aspects, applications and future prospects of metallomics have been highlighted.

Keywords: Environment; Metals; Metallomics; Metalloproteins; Metalloenzymes; Metallochaperones

Published on: Mar 12, 2018 Pages: 1-14

Full Text PDF Full Text HTML DOI: 10.17352/ojps.000008
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