Using Mouse Genetics to Understand Infectious Disease Pathogenesis

The study of mouse and human genetic variation in infectious disease susceptibility (for review, see Malo and Skamene 1994; Hill 1998) should help to improve our knowledge of disease mechanisms by facilitating the identification of critical host proteins that modulate the infection process. Focusing on differences in disease susceptibility in humans will contribute to making progress in this field, but it is also possible to use mouse genetics to identify genes whose human orthologs are likely to affect the outcome of infections in man. It is impossible to adequately review all of the work that has been done to study the genetics of infectious disease susceptibility and pathogenesis. Therefore, I will discuss studies of two different bacterial infections. Although this is not a comprehensive approach, the examples help to illustrate my view that progress in understanding host susceptibility to infection will be facilitated by genetic studies of mouse models of infectious disease.