代谢组学是使用分析化学技术对生物样品(如乳液、血浆、血清等)中的大量小分子代谢物进行全面鉴定和定量分析,已经广泛应用于生物医学、营养学、作物学和畜牧学研究中。最初,代谢组学主要应用于畜牧生产中的非遗传学研究。目前,随着生理基因组学、生理遗传学研究的增多,越来越多的研究者开始利用代谢组学的技术和方法开展动物遗传育种研究。本文综述了代谢组学检测技术与平台特点及代谢组学在动物遗传学与基因组中的应用,着重总结了动物代谢分子遗传参数估计、品系(品种)间代谢图谱差异、代谢组全基因组关联分析、筛选影响重要经济性状的生物标记等领域的研究进展,讨论了代谢组学研究还需亟待解决的问题。本文通过综述代谢组学在动物育种中的研究进展,旨在为进一步利用代谢组学技术开展动物重要经济性状的遗传基础研究提供参考。

Metabolomics uses advanced analytical chemistry techniques to comprehensively identify, quantify, and characterize a large number of small molecule metabolites in biological samples (e.g., milk, plasma, and serum). It is routinely used in biomedical, nutritional, crop and farm animal research. Metabolomic analyses in farm animals have been initiated in many non-genetic application fields. Recently, it is being increasingly used in animal breeding with the emergence of physiological genomics/genetics and refined phenotypic description. In this review, we describe the features of metabolomics platforms and approaches, and summarize the metabolomics applications in animal genetics and genomics with a focus on some key areas, such as the heritability estimates of metabolomic profiles, identification differences metabolites between lines or breeds, genome-wide association studies with metabotypes, biomarker discovery for economic traits. Moreover, we also discuss the potential applications based on current livestock metabolomics studies. The intent of this review is to provide a critical overview of the trends in the applications of metabolomics in animal breeding, aiming to provide a reference for further studies on the genetic background of the important traits of farm animals combined metabolomics with genomics.