Epigenetics in food allergies: The missing piece of the puzzle

Over the last decade, food allergy (FA) has reached epidemic proportions. Genetic factors may predict an increased predisposition to FA development, however, the rising incidence of FA is occurring more rapidly than changes to the genome sequence would allow. Environmental exposures that alter the immune response may also play an important role, giving rise to the concept of gene-environment interactions in FA development. Epigenetic modifications of the genome are the major mediator of this interaction, thus the epigenome may represent the “missing piece” of the etiological puzzle for FA. In this chapter we discuss the interplay between nutrition, genetics, environmental exposures, and epigenetics as the key players in of FAs, and highlight the emerging epigenetic paradigm in the pathogenesis of FA.