Feedomics: promises for food security with sustainable food animal production

Publication date: Available online 7 August 2018Source: TrAC Trends in Analytical ChemistryAuthor(s): Hui-Zeng Sun, Le Luo GuanAbstractThe production of adequate and nutritious animal proteins for the increasing human population is an urgent global task. Therefore, enhancing the efficiency and sustainability of food animal production requires advanced analytical techniques. We propose the concept of “feedomics” for food animal research, an emerging field using omics technologies, to understand and uncover the mechanisms involved in many biological processes that determine animal productivity, product quality, and health as a result of the interactions among feed, environment, animal genetics, physiology, and its symbiotic microbiota. In this review, we summarize the findings to date based on the omics approaches including (meta)genomics, epigenomics, (meta)transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics in food animal species and consider how these can be used to understand the processes from the “gate” to “plate”. We also highlight future directions for applying feedomics in fundamental and practical studies to improve the quantity, quality, safety and functional properties of food animal products.Graphical abstract
Source: TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry - Category: Chemistry Source Type: research