TY - JOUR

T1 - A Beautiful Life: High Risk-High Payoff in Genetic Science.

AU - O'Brien, Stephen J.

PY - 2020/2/15

Y1 - 2020/2/15

N2 - This narrative is a personal view of adventures in genetic science and society that have blessed my life and career across five decades. The advances I enjoyed and the lessons I learned derive from educational training, substantial collaboration, and growing up in the genomics age. I parse the stories into six research disciplines my students, fellows, and colleagues have entered and, in some cases, made an important difference. The first is comparative genetics, where evolutionary inference is applied to genome organization, from building gene maps in the 1970s to building whole genome sequences today. The second area tracks the progression of molecular evolutionary advances and applications to resolve the hierarchical relationship among living species in the silence of prehistory. The third endeavor outlines the birth and maturation of genetic studies and application to species conservation. The fourth theme discusses how emerging viruses studied in a genomic sense opened our eyes to host–pathogen interaction and interdependence. The fifth research emphasis outlines the population genetic–based search and discovery of human restriction genes that influence the epidemiological outcome of abrupt outbreaks, notably HIV–AIDS and several cancers. Finally, the last arena explored illustrates how genetic individualization in human and animals has improved forensic evidence in capital crimes. Each discipline has intuitive and technological overlaps, and each has benefitted from the contribution of genetic and genomic principles I learned so long ago from Drosophila. The journey continues.

AB - This narrative is a personal view of adventures in genetic science and society that have blessed my life and career across five decades. The advances I enjoyed and the lessons I learned derive from educational training, substantial collaboration, and growing up in the genomics age. I parse the stories into six research disciplines my students, fellows, and colleagues have entered and, in some cases, made an important difference. The first is comparative genetics, where evolutionary inference is applied to genome organization, from building gene maps in the 1970s to building whole genome sequences today. The second area tracks the progression of molecular evolutionary advances and applications to resolve the hierarchical relationship among living species in the silence of prehistory. The third endeavor outlines the birth and maturation of genetic studies and application to species conservation. The fourth theme discusses how emerging viruses studied in a genomic sense opened our eyes to host–pathogen interaction and interdependence. The fifth research emphasis outlines the population genetic–based search and discovery of human restriction genes that influence the epidemiological outcome of abrupt outbreaks, notably HIV–AIDS and several cancers. Finally, the last arena explored illustrates how genetic individualization in human and animals has improved forensic evidence in capital crimes. Each discipline has intuitive and technological overlaps, and each has benefitted from the contribution of genetic and genomic principles I learned so long ago from Drosophila. The journey continues.

KW - Биоинформатика

KW - genomics

KW - conservation

KW - AIDS

KW - autobiography

KW - Evolution

KW - evolution

KW - CANINE-DISTEMPER VIRUS

KW - FELINE IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS

KW - NATURAL-POPULATIONS

KW - DROSOPHILA-MELANOGASTER

KW - IDENTIFICATION

KW - EVOLUTION

KW - COMPARATIVE GENOMICS

KW - ALPHA-GLYCEROPHOSPHATE CYCLE

KW - CCR5

KW - DOMESTIC CAT

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85080845244&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/7bef95b1-de04-36a7-a6f9-cd93aa24a8cc/

U2 - doi: 10.1146/annurev-animal-021419-083944

DO - doi: 10.1146/annurev-animal-021419-083944

M3 - Review article

VL - 8

SP - 221

EP - 246

JO - Annual Review of Animal Biosciences

JF - Annual Review of Animal Biosciences

SN - 2165-8102

ER -