ABSTRACT
Nutritional epigenomics provides a comprehensive overview of nutritional epigenomics as a mode of study as well as nutrition’s role in the epigenomics regulation of disease, health and developmental processes. The epigenome, in addition to the genome, stores heritable information. The genome is supposed to be stable throughout one’s life, whereas the epigenome is very dynamic and is influenced by environmental factors such as dietary molecules. It is expected that epigenetics will eventually explain the missing classical genetic heritability of susceptibility to complex diseases and traits. Persons born with low birth weight, for example, have a high risk of developing type-2 diabetes later in life, implying that epigenetic programing during embryogenesis and the intrauterine environment both contribute to type-2 diabetes risk. Furthermore, the human individual’s lifestyle, particularly the daily choice of diet, appears to create a metabolic memory within the epigenome. This theory proposes that lifestyle changes such as personalized diet, increased physical activity, and subsequent weight loss can have a beneficial effect on the epigenome and thus reduce the risk of developing metabolic syndrome. In this chapter, we will define various epigenetic mechanisms that process information provided by dietary molecules, such as posttranslational 316histone modifications and DNA methylation. We will discover that many chromatin-modifying enzymes are sensitive to changes in the levels of intermediary metabolites that act as cosubstrates and cofactors as well as changes in nutrient intake and metabolism. We will gain insight into the concepts of nutritional epigenetic programing by understanding prenatal supplementation in mouse models. This will lead us to the thrifty hypothesis and we will talk about the various approaches to epigenetic epidemiology, including the concept of “epigenetic drift” during adulthood.
