Editorial: molecular biomarkers in animal reproduction

Abstract

Improving the reproductive efficiency of livestock species remains challenging the scientific community. Emerging 'omics technologies, such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, are helping to overcome this challenge (1, 2). These high-throughput technologies make it possible to identify the set of molecules and regulatory networks which are directly or indirectly involved in reproductive processes, and to recognize molecules that play a key role in major reproductive events (3). In this context, one of the purposes of this special issue was to highlight the increasing applicability of 'omics to identify key molecules involved in modulating main reproductive events of animal species of economic interest. Seven out of nine research papers included in this special issue used 'omics-tools, five of them using transcriptomics and the other two using metabolomics and proteomics.