ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how nutrients can influence gene expression and describes how this knowledge can be applied in nutritional research by utilization of transcriptional profiling. Two research approaches are discussed: a mechanistic approach and
a biomarker profiling approach. The mechanistic approach is a commonly applied method in transcriptomics research and has been extremely useful in the identification of the molecular pathways and signaling routes involving nutrients. The biomarker profiling approach is under development but will have significant impact, especially in human research. For both methods, nutrition-specific pitfalls are discussed, in addition to an outline of potential applications of gene expression profiling in humans and animal models, with examples of nutrition-related transcriptomics studies published so far. Furthermore, transcriptional profiling is discussed in relation to its current and future applications in personalized nutrition.
