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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Davis, California » Western Human Nutrition Research Center » Obesity and Metabolism Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #412485
Research Project: Improving Public Health by Understanding Metabolic and Bio-Behavioral Effects of Following Recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Location: Obesity and Metabolism Research

Title: Multiomics: Functional molecular biomarkers of micronutrients for public health application

Author
item Allen, Lindsay
item FENECH, MICHAEL - Commonwealth Scientific And Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
item LEVATTE, MARCIA - University Of Alberta
item WEST, KEITH - Hopkins School Of Public Health
item WISHART, DAVID - University Of Alberta

Submitted to: Annual Review of Nutrition
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/30/2024
Publication Date: 8/1/2024
Citation: Allen, L.H., Fenech, M., Levatte, M.A., West, Jr., K.P., Wishart, D. 2024. Multiomics: Functional molecular biomarkers of micronutrients for public health application. Annual Review of Nutrition. 44:125-153. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-nutr-062322-022751.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-nutr-062322-022751

Interpretive Summary: Adequate micronutrient intake and status are global public health goals. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies are widespread and known to impair health and survival across the life stages. However, knowledge of molecular effects, metabolic pathways, biological responses to preventing, and abilities to assess populations for, micronutrient deficiencies and their pathology remain lacking. Recently this situation is improving because of analytical breakthroughs in genomics (the study of multiple genes), epigenomics (the study of chemical and other changes to the genome), proteomics (the large-scale analysis of proteins), and metabolomics (the measurement of all metabolites in a sample). These provide unparalleled opportunities for the nutrition research community to link micronutrient intakes and status to gene health, discover new, arguably essential micronutrients of microbial origin, and integrate methods of molecular biology, epidemiology and intervention trials to develop novel approaches to assess and prevent micronutrient deficiencies in populations. In this review, we offer new terminology to specify nutritional application of multiomic approaches and encourage collaboration across the basic-to-public health sciences to advance micronutrient deficiency prevention.

Technical Abstract: Adequate micronutrient intake and status are global public health goals. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies are widespread and known to impair health and survival across the life stages. However, knowledge of molecular effects, metabolic pathways, biological responses to preventing, and abilities to assess populations for, micronutrient deficiencies and their pathology remain lacking. Rapidly evolving methodological capabilities in genomics, epigenomics, proteomics and metabolomics offer unparalleled opportunities for the nutrition research community to link micronutrient exposure to gene health, discover new, arguably essential micronutrients of microbial origin, and integrate methods of molecular biology, epidemiology and intervention trials to develop novel approaches to assess and prevent micronutrient deficiencies in populations. In this essay, we offer new terminology to specify nutritional application of multiomic approaches and encourage collaboration across the basic-to-public health sciences to advance micronutrient deficiency prevention.