Omics-guided aquafeed innovation: raw ingredients to functional nutrition

Abstract

The rapid expansion of aquaculture and the ongoing transition from marine derived feed ingredients have intensified the need for precise tools to evaluate alternative diet formulations. Traditional compositional analyses are increasingly insufficient for this purpose, as they lack the potential to capture molecular complexity of novel plant-based, insect based and single cell protein ingredients. High-throughput omics technologies like metabolomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, metagenomics, and epigenomics are filling the gaps by characterization of molecular interactions, including identification of bioactive phytochemicals, anti-nutritional factors, and quality markers. Then they are integrated with dynamic in-vitro gastrointestinal simulations systems, multi-omics data can support rational pre-selection of experimental functional feeds before animal trails, reducing cost and ethical burden. In vivo validation through controlled feeding trials, integrated with multi-omics analyses, then allows mechanistic elucidation of host-diet-microbiome interactions and systematic biomarkers discovery for feed efficiency assessment. Nutriepigenomics adds further dimensions by how early nutritional programming induces lasting epigenetics modifications in fish, with implications for long term diet assessment. Throughout, the extraordinary physiological diversity of teleosts in trophic strategy, gut morphology, and genomic resources imposes meaningful constraints on cross-species data interpretation that the field must acknowledge rigorously. Despite the challenges in standardization, cost, and large-scale validation, advances in artificial intelligence, portable analytics, and open access omics data bases are accelerating the translation of these technologies into practical feed innovation.