Systems Biology: Integrating ‘‐Omics'‐Oriented Approaches to Determine Foodborne Microbial Toxins

The possible origins of microbial toxins vary widely, and detection of these toxins in different food matrices is a major challenge for food industries and regulatory agencies. New methodologies are needed to quickly and precisely detect traces of micro-organisms and their toxic metabolites. In post-genomics era, systems biology approaches, ranging from genomic sequencing to transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomic profiling, may be an effective platform for developing tests to identify a variety of toxins in field applications; multiple functional ‘-omics’ could be combined into a system-wide approach for detecting toxins, which may also be useful in the study of microbial pathogenesis. Advances in systems biology are addressed in the current article, as well as possible uses of these high-throughput platforms to ensure food and feed safety. Keywords: genomics; metabolomics; microbial toxins; proteomics; reactome; systems biology; transcriptomics