Host genetic factors play a major role in determining differential susceptibility to major infectious diseases of humans, such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and invasive pneumococcal disease. Progress in identifying the relevant genetic loci has come from a variety of approaches. Most convincing associations have been identified by case-control studies assessing biologically plausible candidate genes. All six of the genes that have a major effect on infectious disease susceptibility in humans have been identified in this way. However, recently genome-wide linkage analysis of affected sibling pairs has identified susceptibility loci for chronic infections such as leprosy and chronic hepatitis B virus persistence. Other approaches used successfully have included assessment in humans of the homologues of susceptibility genes mapped and identified in murine models. However, the great majority of susceptibility loci remain to be identified and the advent of large-scale genome-wide association scans offers a new approach to defining many of these.

中文翻译：

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人类传染病的遗传易感性方面。

宿主遗传因素在确定对人类主要传染病（如疟疾，艾滋病毒/艾滋病，结核病和侵袭性肺炎球菌疾病）的敏感性差异中起着重要作用。鉴定相关遗传基因座的进展来自多种方法。大多数令人信服的关联已通过病例对照研究进行评估，这些研究评估了生物学上合理的候选基因。以这种方式鉴定了对人类的传染病易感性具有主要影响的所有六个基因。但是，最近对受影响的同胞对的全基因组连锁分析已经确定了慢性感染的易感基因座，例如麻风病和慢性乙型肝炎病毒的持久性。成功使用的其他方法包括在人类中评估在鼠模型中定位和鉴定的易感基因的同源物。然而，绝大多数的易感基因座尚待确定，大规模的全基因组关联扫描的出现为定义其中许多提供了一种新方法。