Human Genomics: Principles and Clinical Practice

by Alyssa Boyle

The genetic material of an organism, including the DNA, is known as a genome. The interdisciplinary field of biology which focuses on the structure, function and evolution of genomes is known as genomics. It deals with the sequencing and analysis of genomes as well as the intragenomic phenomena that occur within the genomes such as epistasis, pleiotropy and heterosis. The study that particularly focuses on the applications of genomic analysis to all aspects of human health and disease is referred to as human genomics. The human genome is a complete set of nucleic acid sequence of humans. It is encoded as DNA in 23 pairs of chromosomes. These pairs are present in cell nuclei and inside a small DNA molecule within individual mitochondria. Human genomes include two forms of DNA genes, namely, protein-coding and non-coding DNA. This book provides comprehensive insights into the field of human genomics. It will also provide interesting topics for research which interested readers can take up. This book is meant for students who are looking for an elaborate reference text on human genomics.