Ecogenomic assessment of soil toxicity associated with the production chain of 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), a candidate bio-based green chemical building block. Folsomia candida

2,5-furan dicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is the top-12 value-added chemicals derived from biomass that may serve as a 'green' substitute for terephthalate acid (TPA) in polyesters. FDCA can be synthesized chemically from 5-(hydroxymethyl) furfural (HMF), which is produced from fructose or glucose. To investigate impact of the production chain of FDCA on terrestrial ecosystem and unravel molecular pathways invoked and the biological process affected in the animal, a microarray analysis was applied to measure the transcriptome-wide response in soil invertebrates Folsomia candida. Microarrays examined transcriptional changes at EC50 concentrations of FDCA, HMF and TPA spiked in sterilized LUFA 2.2 soils. The results indicated FDCA and TPA caused no significant change in gene expression, which may due to the low chemical water solubility leading to slow uptake by the animal from the pore water after. A substantial number of genes were significantly regulated in F. candida after exposure to HMF. Gene Ontology analysis showed many biological process were significantly affected, such as nucleic acid metabolism, transcriptional metabolic process, cell developmental process and oxidation-reduction process. Transcriptional profile also indicated HMF can be biotransformed by F. candida into SMF which is genotoxic and mutagenic. The current research shows that environmental risk of the FDCA production chain from biomass is not due to the final product but to the intermediate HMF. Overall design: We used a one-color microarray design where each sample was hybridized to a single array

2,5-呋喃二甲酸（2,5-furan dicarboxylic acid, FDCA）是源自生物质的前12位高附加值化学品之一，可作为聚酯材料中对苯二甲酸（terephthalate acid, TPA）的“绿色”替代物。FDCA可通过化学方法由5-羟甲基糠醛（5-(hydroxymethyl) furfural, HMF）合成，而HMF则由果糖或葡萄糖制备。为探究FDCA生产链对陆地生态系统的影响，阐明其在动物体内激活的分子通路与受影响的生物过程，本研究采用微阵列分析技术，检测土壤无脊椎动物等节跳虫（Folsomia candida）的全转录组响应。实验设置了添加有FDCA、HMF及TPA的灭菌LUFA 2.2土壤，以半数效应浓度（EC50）处理样本，通过微阵列检测转录组变化。结果显示，FDCA与TPA未引起显著基因表达变化，这可能与二者水溶性较低，导致动物无法从土壤孔隙水中快速摄取该类物质有关。而暴露于HMF的等节跳虫体内，有大量基因发生显著表达调控。基因本体（Gene Ontology）分析表明，多个生物过程受到显著影响，包括核酸代谢、转录代谢过程、细胞发育过程及氧化还原过程。转录组谱还显示，等节跳虫可将HMF生物转化为具有遗传毒性与致突变性的代谢物SMF。本研究表明，生物质来源FDCA生产链的环境风险并非来自最终产物FDCA，而是源自中间产物HMF。整体实验设计：本研究采用单通道微阵列设计，每个样本仅与单张芯片进行杂交。