title: The Arab genome: Health and wealth.
abstract: The 22 Arab nations have a unique genetic structure, which reflects both conserved and diverse gene pools due to the prevalent endogamous and consanguineous marriage culture and the long history of admixture among different ethnic subcultures descended from the Asian, European, and African continents. Human genome sequencing has enabled large-scale genomic studies of different populations and has become a powerful tool for studying disease predictions and diagnosis. Despite the importance of the Arab genome for better understanding the dynamics of the human genome, discovering rare genetic variations, and studying early human migration out of Africa, it is poorly represented in human genome databases, such as HapMap and the 1000 Genomes Project. In this review, I demonstrate the significance of sequencing the Arab genome and setting an Arab genome reference(s) for better understanding the molecular pathogenesis of genetic diseases, discovering novel/rare variants, and identifying a meaningful genotype-phenotype correlation for complex diseases.
authors.affiliation: College of Health and Sciences, Biomedical Sciences Department, Qatar University, PO Box 2713, Doha, Qatar. Electronic address: hatem.zayed@qu.edu.qa.
authors.forename: Hatem
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zayed
mesh_terms: D018912:Arabs / Q000235:genetics*; D015894:Genome, Human; D060148:HapMap Project / Q000191:economics*; D016045:Human Genome Project / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans
keywords: Arab countries; Consanguinity; Endogamous marriage; Human genome sequencing; Novel genes; Novel variants; Whole exome sequencing