About the book

Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) are analyzes of specific genetic variations throughout a genome to identify whether any variant is associated with a particular trait. in the post-genomic era, there is an immense amount of data regarding the genome of countless organisms. This enormous availability of genomic information, in addition to its data availability, enables analysis of the complete genome of the species and imposes a growing demand for the understanding of several complex biological phenomena. Initially, the GWAS approach was applied in human genome studies involving entire sets of DNA from numerous individuals to find gene variations related to diseases such as asthma, diabetes, cancers, heart disease, and mental disorders. Nowadays the impact of GWS studies is not restricted only to the human genome to advances in the understanding of diseases. With the genome sequencing of several species and the availability of their complete genomes in large databases, other complex aspects can be investigated today by GWAS, such as evolutionary and phylogenetic relationships, characteristics of relevance for biodiversity conservation, and genetic improvement of plants and animals. Included in this book there are original and relevant works involving GWAS studies, carefully selected for the academic public. This book has been carefully designed to provide current and quality information to students and researchers of all levels who have an interest in Genome-Wide Association Studies and its applications.