title: Lessons on dietary biomarkers from twin studies.
abstract: Metabolomic and microbiome profiling are promising tools to identify biomarkers of food intake and health status. The individual's genetic makeup plays a significant role on health, metabolism, gut microbes and diet and twin studies provide unique opportunities to untangle gene-environment effects on complex phenotypes. This brief review discusses the value of twin studies in nutrition research with a particular focus on metabolomics and the gut microbiome. Although, the twin model is a powerful tool to segregate the genetic component, to date, very few studies combine the twin design and metabolomics/microbiome in nutritional sciences. Moreover, since the individual's diet has a strong influence on the microbiome composition and the gut microbiome is modifiable (60 % of microbiome diversity is due to the environment), future studies should target the microbiome via dietary interventions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology,King's College London,St Thomas' Hospital Campus,4th Floor South Wing Block D,Westminster Bridge Road,London SE1 7EH,UK.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Menni
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D004032:Diet / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004046:Dietetics / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D000069196:Gastrointestinal Microbiome; D006801:Humans; D055432:Metabolomics / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D054647:Nutrigenomics / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D012958:Societies, Scientific; D018433:Twin Studies as Topic
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords:  DZ dizoygotic;  MZ monozygotic; Dietary biomarkers; Gut microbiome; Metabolomics; Twins