Volume 27 of the Annual Review of Nutrition continues the tradition of providing critical authoritative reviews of topics covering all aspects of the nutrition field. Barbara Bowman and Dennis Bier shared editorial duties for Volume 27 with me. The other editorial committee members who generated the topics for this volume were Kathleen Rasmussen, Dale Romsos, Rima Rozen, John Suttie, and Steven Ziesel. We are pleased that the Annual Review of Nutrition continues to have an extremely high ranking among citation-monitoring services.

The prefatory chapter offers readers of this volume the special opportunity to share Nevin Scrimshaw's reflection on his half-century-plus involvement in the worldwide nutrition community. He highlights his role in establishing INCAP and the Nutrition and Food Science Department at MIT as well as his work with the United Nations University and other groups that address nutrition issues in developing countries. Also in this volume, Forsum & Löf discuss energy requirements during pregnancy and the need to base these requirements on accurate energy intake data. Rasmussen reviews the negative relationship between obesity in women of reproductive age and successful breastfeeding outcomes. Sellen presents a hypothesis that humans evolved a flexible neonatal feeding strategy as an adaptation, but under contemporary conditions, this strategy may produce imbalances that prevent optimal feeding practices for infants and children. In their chapter on brain evolution among primates, Leonard and coauthors suggest that humans have an energetically expensive brain that dictates their low-muscle/high-fat body composition.

Votruba & Jensen review the hypothesis regarding regional differences in body fat deposition and discuss evidence suggesting that these differences do not appear to be gender specific. Wahren & Ekberg review the latest understanding of the liver's dynamic roles in glucose processing/production and how these events are differentially altered in Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. The chapter by Tremblay et al. outlines the evidence that the high quality of dietary protein from fish, operating through the mTOR transcription factor, modulates insulin action. Yudkoff and coauthors describe the evidence suggesting that ketogenic diets promote glutamine syntheses yielding an antiseizure effect in epileptics. Brosnan & Brosnan review the evidence that creatine plays a role beyond that of an ATP buffer by also serving as an energy shuttle that requires a dietary source to supplement endogenous synthesis. The molecular genetics of anorexia nervosa is reviewed by Bulik and coauthors within the context of the familial component as supported with twin studies.

Waterland & Michels review evidence supporting epigenetic mechanisms in health and disease origins and the role of nutrition as one of the environmental stimuli involved. The coordination of energy homeostasis with circadian gene networks and sleep/wakefulness cycles is discussed in the chapter by Ramsey et al. Taste receptor genes, T1R and T2R, and their adaptation to feeding-behavior differences of vertebrate species is the subject of the chapter by Bachmanov & Beauchamp. The neurophysiology surrounding the rejection (by animals) of diets that lead to deficiency of indispensable amino acids is presented by Gietzen and coauthors. Mizushima & Klionsky review recent information on how autophagy responds to nutrient limitations to maintain intracellular protein metabolism. The critical role of the selenium-requiring enzyme glutathione peroxidase 1 in oxidant defense as demonstrated with transgenic mice is placed in perspective by Lei et al.

In a review of copper, iron, and zinc transporter genes that are expressed in the mammary gland, Lönnerdal provides evidence on how the abundance of these micronutrients in milk is regulated during lactation. Traber describes how the liver, through synthesis of tocopherol transfer protein, regulates the distribution of body vitamin E levels. The influence of the carbohydrate-responsive element-binding protein, ChREBP, on hepatic lipid synthesis is presented in the review by Postic and coauthors. Control of adipocyte lipolysis for energy substrate generation via novel lipases including desnutrim/ATGL and nonenzymatic proteins is described by Duncan et al. Spindler & Dhahbi present evidence that the genomics of dietary calorie restriction to increase lifespan point to genes involved in apoptosis and autophagy.

The Annual Review of Nutrition editors are confident that the reviews in volume 27—written by recognized authorities—will provide extremely valuable aids for teaching and research purposes. As always, these volumes are only possible through the efforts and support of our Production Editor, Lisa Dean, and the President of Annual Reviews, Samuel Gubins.

Robert J. Cousins

Editor