Putative Genetic Interaction Points Between Tb Patients

Human genome-wide association studies have failed so far to reveal reproducible susceptibility loci, attributed in part to the influence of the underlying Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacterial genotype on the outcome of the infection. In recent work by Jody et al, by implementing a phylogenetic tree-based analysis for 714 TB patients from Thailand, we identify eight putative genetic interaction points both linked to the IFNγ cytokine and host immune system. The genome-to-genome analysis reveals a complex interactome picture, supports host-pathogen adaptation and co-evolution in TB, and has potential applications to large-scale studies across many TB endemic populations