These Are the Genes You're Looking For: Finding Host Resistance Genes

Humanity's ongoing struggle with new, re-emerging and endemic infectious diseases serves as a frequent reminder of the need to understand host-pathogen interactions. Recent advances in genomics have dramatically advanced our understanding of how genetics contributes to host resistance or susceptibility to bacterial infection. Here we discuss current trends in defining host-bacterial interactions at the genome-wide level, including screens that harness CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, natural genetic variation, proteomics, and transcriptomics. We report on the merits, limitations, and findings of these innovative screens and discuss their complementary nature. Finally, we speculate on future innovation as we continue to progress through the postgenomic era and towards deeper mechanistic insight and clinical applications.