Missing Genomic Resources for the Next Generation of Environmental Risk Assessment

Environmental risk assessment traditionally relies on
a wide range
of in vivo testing to assess the potential hazards of chemicals in
the environment. These tests are often time-consuming and costly and
can cause test organisms’ suffering. Recent developments of
reliable low-cost alternatives, both in vivo- and in silico-based,
opened the door to reconsider current toxicity assessment. However,
many of these new approach methodologies (NAMs) rely on high-quality
annotated genomes for surrogate species of regulatory risk assessment.
Currently, a lack of genomic information slows the process of NAM
development. Here, we present a phylogenetically resolved overview
of missing genomic resources for surrogate species within a regulatory
ecotoxicological risk assessment. We call for an organized and systematic
effort within the (regulatory) ecotoxicological community to provide
these missing genomic resources. Further, we discuss the potential
of a standardized genomic surrogate species landscape to enable a
robust and nonanimal-reliant ecotoxicological risk assessment in the
systems ecotoxicology era.