Genetic and Nutritional Regulation of Milk Synthesis

Milk is highly important in human nutrition. As the world’s population continues to grow, the need for high-quality animal milk is increasing. The challenge is ensuring that the production of milk meets the global demands but also that this is done in a way to improve the quality of the milk, including compounds with beneficial effects on human health, not compromising animal welfare, and improving the efficiency of the utilization of resources, in primis feed ingredients. Milk is a very complex substance and the synthesis and secretion of copious amount of milk require a highly sophisticated network of molecules and complex processes that are highly regulated. Both genetic and nutritional factors affect the synthesis of milk components. Several advances have been made in the last 50 years on lactation biology but development of novel technologies, such as various omics and gene editing technologies have opened new avenues to reveal in great details the main metabolic and signaling pathways regulating the synthesis of milk components. This Research Topic focuses on the key factors regulating the synthesis of milk components, aiming at improving milk quality using genetic and nutritional strategies. The Research Topic covers investigation on the regulation of milk synthesis encompassing, among others:
- Function(s) of genes and gene networks involved in metabolic and signalling pathways responsible for the regulation of the synthesis of milk.
- Transcriptional regulation of genes coding for main enzymes involved in the synthesis of milk.
- Nutrient-gene interaction (nutrigenomics) and nutritional regulation of the epigenome of mammary cells/tissues.
- The effect of different nutrients on yield and quality of milk.
Original research and review articles are accepted.

Keywords: mammary gland, lactation, fatty acid metabolism, lipid metabolism, milk protein synthesis, nutrients, animal breeding in ruminant, transcriptional regulation, nutritional epigenetics

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