Abstract
Allergic diseases such as atopic asthma are considered multifactorial disorders involved in both genetic and environmental factors. To identify genes conferring susceptibility for allergic diseases, candidate gene approaches and the genome-wide linkage studies have been carried out in different ethnic populations, and several susceptibility genes have been identified. Recent advance of the technology enable us to perform genome-wide association study using hundreds of thousands SNPs to identify susceptibility genes for common diseases, and ORMDL3, CRIM1, and PEX 19 have been identified as new susceptibility genes for asthma. Also, by combining data of microarray analysis and whole genome-wide SNP analysis, global map of the effects of SNPs on gene expression has been created and easy-to-use software is available on the website. These advance in analytical tools and technologies will promote the discovery of the genetic basis of allergic diseases in the future.
