Skip to main content
ARS Home » Northeast Area » Boston, Massachusetts » Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center On Aging » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #227994
Title: The challenges of molecular nutrition research 1- Linking genotype to healthy nutrition

Author
item WILLIAMS, CHRISTINE - UNIV OF READING
item Ordovas, Jose
item LAIRON, DENNIS - UNIV OF MEDITERRANEE
item HESKETH, JOHN - NEWCASTLE UNIV
item LIETZ, GEORG - NEWCASTLE UNIV
item GIBNEY, MIKE - UNIV COLLEGE DUBLIN
item VAN OMMEN, BEN - TNO-QUAL OF LIFE, BIOSCI

Submitted to: Genes and Nutrition
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/25/2008
Publication Date: 7/1/2008
Citation: Williams, C.M., Ordovas, J.M., Lairon, D., Hesketh, J., Lietz, G., Gibney, M., Van Ommen, B. 2008. The challenges of molecular nutrition research 1- Linking genotype to healthy nutrition. Genes and Nutrition. 3(2):41–49.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Nutrition science finds itself at a major crossroad. On one hand we can continue the current path that along several decades has resulted in substantial advances but surrounded by conflicting messages and unsubstantiated claims that have been crumbling the trust of the general population, always eager and hopeful of finding in their nourishment the answer to many of their ailments and afflictions. The other road is uncharted and is being built over the many exciting new developments in life sciences. This new era of nutrition recognizes the complex relation between the health of the individual, its genome, and the life-long dietary exposure, and has lead to the realisation that nutrition is essentially a gene-environment interaction science. This review on the relation between genotype, diet and health is the first of a series dealing with the major challenges in molecular nutrition, analyzing the foundations of nutrition research. With the unravelling of the human genome and the linking of its variability to a multitude of phenotypes from “healthy” to an enormously complex range of predispositions, the dietary modulation of these propensities has become an area of active research. Classical genetic approaches applied so far in medical genetics have steered away from incorporating dietary effects in their models and paradoxically, most genetic studies analyzing diet-associated phenotypes and diseases simply ignore diet. Yet, a modest but increasing number of studies are accounting for diet as a modulator of genetic associations. These range from observational cohorts to intervention studies with prospectively selected genotypes. New statistical and bioinformatics approaches are becoming available to aid in design and evaluation of these studies. This review discusses the various approaches used and provides concrete recommendations for future research.