Genetics

Full sequencing of many bacterial genomes, yeast, Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila, mouse, and human genomes has brought about a new era in genetics, and a development of a new area—genomics. Availability of full DNA sequences of multiple organisms allows the comparative analysis (comparative genetics) of genomes allowing gene identification, finding of regulatory sequences and tracing evolution.

Genetic analysis proved very successful in Mendelian diseases. New challenges for genetics are the studies of common complex diseases such as asthma, obesity or hypertension. These diseases are caused by interaction of multiple genes and also environment, making their analysis even more difficult. Geneticists analyze DNA sequence to correlate any changes with the disease (association studies). Small fragments of repetitive DNA sequence (microsatellites) or single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are analyzed. Such studies require analysis of large control (healthy) population in addition to the affected group before any conclusions can be made. Solving of the puzzle of complex traits is going to be possible by combining molecular genetics, biostatistics, further clinical and computational/bioinformatical analysis.