Food Proteomes: Beyond Their Nutritional Value

Diet is a main environmental contributor to human health and disease; thus, the study of dietary nutrients and health has emerged as a central research topic in the field of nutrition. Although the roles of dietary macronutrients such as protein have been largely defined, proteins exert other significant biological roles in our body beyond acting as a macronutrient. This requires specific attention.

Endogenous digestion breaks down protein backbones and generates a complex array of molecules that range from single amino acids and dipeptides, to long amino acid chains. Some of these molecules along the digestive tract and after absorption, display biological functions which are challenging to define due to the complexity of the generated mixtures. Additionally, industrial processing modulates protein composition by adding an extra grade of complexity to food proteomes. Global approaches aim to study food proteomes and their potential harmful or beneficial functionality post-digestion. Thus, it is crucial to understand the roles of dietary proteins in human health and disease.

This Research Topic in Frontiers in Nutrition therefore welcomes submissions focusing on dietary proteomes, their composition and function from foods to health and disease. Mass spectrometry proteomics applications and innovations in the field are especially encouraged. We welcome original research articles, reviews, perspectives and general commentaries.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:
- Food cryptome (bioactive peptides generated from precursor proteins by proteolysis)
- Food-derived bioactive peptides discovery
- In-vivo, in-vitro, in-silico studies about food proteome and bioactivities
- Food proteome characterization
- Food proteome and health
- Food processing and health (relation between protein modifications originated during food processing and their effect on health or disease conditions)
- Methodologies for the study of food proteomes