ABSTRACT
Genetic studies of complex traits in humans are being undertaken at an unprecedented scale of funding, competition, and collaboration. The rapid growth of complex trait studies in humans is attributable in large part to advances in methods, hardware, and automation of microsatellite genotyping and deoxyribonucleic acid sequencing. Diabetes mellitus is a genetic disorder that is highly prevalent in Western societies. Diabetes mellitus has different forms, and the clinical courses also include other categories of glucose intolerance such as impaired glucose tolerance and gestational diabetes. A subtype of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus that has an early age of onset and autosomal dominant inheritance is known as maturity-onset diabetes of the young. Rather, complex trait mapping in humans is quite young compared to genetic research using experimental animals. Much of the research in complex diseases, and in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in particular, is focused on the first stages of the full positional cloning model.
