Integrating genomics into evolutionary medicine.

Bibliographic Collection: 
CARTA-Inspired Publication
Publication Type: Journal Article
Authors: Rodríguez, JA; Marigorta, UM; Navarro, A
Year of Publication: 2014
Journal: Curr Opin Genet Dev
Volume: 29
Pagination: 97-102
Date Published: Dec
Publication Language: eng
ISBN Number: 0959-437X
Accession Number: 25218863
Abstract:

The application of the principles of evolutionary biology into medicine was suggested long ago and is already providing insight into the ultimate causes of disease. However, a full systematic integration of medical genomics and evolutionary medicine is still missing. Here, we briefly review some cases where the combination of the two fields has proven profitable and highlight two of the main issues hindering the development of evolutionary genomic medicine as a mature field, namely the dissociation between fitness and health and the still considerable difficulties in predicting phenotypes from genotypes. We use publicly available data to illustrate both problems and conclude that new approaches are needed for evolutionary genomic medicine to overcome these obstacles.

Author Address:

Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC-PRBB), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. School of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA. Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC-PRBB), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain; Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain; National Institute for Bioinformatics (INB), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain; Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Catalonia, Spain. Electronic address: arcadi.navarro@upf.edu.

Export: