必需金属的生物信息学研究现状与展望

Progress in Bioinformatics Studies on Essential Metals

金属元素在整个生物界被广泛利用。生物体所必需的金属中除了钾、钙、钠和镁以外均属于微量元素。它们虽然在体内含量很少,但在各种生命活动中发挥着重要的作用。一直以来关于必需金属的研究工作主要集中在金属蛋白和相关代谢机制的实验研究上。随着近年来基因组、蛋白质组等组学数据的不断积累,为开展金属、金属组和金属蛋白质组等相关的生物信息学研究工作提供了重要的条件,让我们可以从系统的角度去进一步认识必需金属的利用、代谢及其生物学功能。本文将分别对若干必需金属(包括铜、钼、镍、钴、锌、铁和硒等)相关的生物信息学研究进展进行介绍,并结合当前离子组学相关的技术方法和研究现状。希望本文有助于我们进一步认识必需金属研究领域的重要问题和未来的发展方向。

Metals are utilized through the three domains of life. Except for potassium, calcium, sodium and magnesium, all essential metals are trace elements. They play important roles in a variety of biological processes, but are needed in very small quantities. Previously, much effort has been focused on experimental studies of metal utilization pathways and metalloproteins. However, with the accumulation of large amount of data from genomics and proteomics studies, it becomes necessary and possible for computational and systematic analyses of the metallomes （or metalloproteomes） to be carried on, which would provide new insights into metal utilization, metabolization and biological functions. In this review, we introduce recent advances in bioinformatics studies on several metals, such as copper, molybdenum, nickel, cobalt, zinc, iron and the metalloid selenium. Furthermore, we also discuss the major techniques and recent advances of high-throughput ionomics studies. We hope that this review may provide a foundation for investigating the fundamental questions and future directions of metal research.