Nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics: Special emphasis on optimization of human health and animal performance

Abstract

Environmental factors, food’s nutrients, and genetic makeup play an important role in phenotypic appearance of a trait via the principles of biological sciences. The nutritional genomics focuses on the interaction between bioactive food components and the genome, which includes nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics. The influence of nutrients on genes expression is called nutrigenomics, while the heterogeneous response of gene variants to dietary nutrients is called nutrigenetics. Nutrigenomics is providing the effects of ingested food’s nutrients on gene expression and gene regulation, i.e., diet-gene interaction in order to identify the dietetic components having beneficial or detrimental health effects. It elucidates that how DNA and genetic code influence the need for specific nutrients and also within specific quantities are required for maintaining good health throughout life. It is helpful to determine the personalized diet that means individual nutritional requirements based on the genetic makeup of the person as well as clarifies some etiological perspectives of chronic diseases like type-2 diabetes, cancer, obesity and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) because of associations between diet and chronic diseases. Rearing of farmed animals is a vital component of global food production systems, its impact on the environment, human health, animal welfare, and biodiversity is being increasingly challenged. Developments in genetic and genomic technologies have had a key role in improving the productivity of farmed animals for decades. The goal of discussing these issues is to get a better understanding of basic biological issues and to apply their knowledge to practical problems such as medicine, and improvement of animal performance. Therefore, this review article is focus on the role of genes and the use of genomic techniques in human health, as well as animals’ well-being and welfare.