Genomics of infectious diseases

Put simply, genomics refers to the study of the entire genome of an organism, whereas genetics refers to the study of a particular gene. More specifically, genomics is a broad field within molecular biology that focuses on the analysis of genomes, including their structure, function, mapping, and evolution, as well as the interactions between their genes as a whole and their interactions with the environment. As a result of mutation and genetic drift, the accumulation of differences in functional genomic sequences, which undergo evolutionary pressure, leads to intraspecies genetic variability and, in extreme cases, to speciation. Within a species, these interindividual differences are linked to distinct phenotypes, such as in the case of infectious diseases, the host’s susceptibility to pathogens on one side and the virulence of pathogens on the other side. This coevolutionary interplay holds significant biological interest, as it drives much of the genetic diversity underlying the ongoing interaction between hosts and pathogens, the understanding of which is highly valuable for multiple applications. However, past technical limitations largely restricted more in-depth exploration to pathogen genomes, which are typically smaller in size. Albeit invaluable and labor intensive, insights into the genomes of hosts were only provided for certain organisms and fragmentary. In both cases, such studies were driven by biomedical or economic considerations taking precedence.