Nutrigenomics in livestock: potential role in physiological regulation and practical applications

Abstract

The relationship among nutrition, health, and productivity of livestock is a continuously changing interaction between environment and physiology. As such, understanding how the physiological system is able to adapt to the type and amount of nutrients consumed is central to our ability to care for and manage livestock. Recognition that cells possess proteins with the ability to ‘sense’ and trigger a cascade of biological events in response to nutrient availability is at the core of nutritional genomics (or nutrigenomics) as a field of science. Nutrigenomics is generally defined as the study of the genome-wide influence of nutrition. Certain transcriptional regulators can interact with nutrients and cause large-scale alterations in gene expression, metabolic and signaling pathways, and ultimately tissue function. The advent of high-throughput technologies to study an animal’s microbiome, genome, transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome (i.e. ‘omics’ tools) has been instrumental in moving the field of nutrigenomics forward. Available data from studies with livestock species using targeted or untargeted molecular methods underscore the existence of networks of multiple transcriptional regulators at play in controlling nutrigenomics responses. Fatty acids, amino acids, trace nutrients, and level of feed and energy intake have the strongest reported nutrigenomics potential. An important goal for applying nutrigenomics at the animal level is to uncover key molecular players involved in the physiological adaptations to changes in nutrient supply and environmental conditions.