Chapter 1 - Parasite genomics

Abstract

Genomics, like parasitology, is a research field that thrives on the intersection among different disciplines. Parasitologists study a phylogenetically disparate assemblage of organisms chosen from global diversity on the basis of their trophic relationships to other “host” organisms, and use the tools and paradigms of biochemistry, molecular biology, physiology, and behavior to illuminate the biology of these important taxa. Genomics uses data arising from karyotypic analysis, genetic and physical mapping of traits and anonymous markers, DNA sequencing and bio-informatic prediction of function-structure relationships. The meld of parasitology and genomics is thus necessarily and productively hybrid.. The chapter concludes that while the methodologies used to analyze the genomes of protozoan, nematode, and platyhelminth genomes may differ because of the ways the genomes of these organisms are organized, the aims of programs on individual species are in general the same.