Genetics of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and Type 2 Diabetes

The successful application of posi-tional cloning, the process of diseasesusceptibility gene identification us-ing gene mapping techniques, to identify the gene underlying cystic fibrosis (1) opened the era of gene hunting. The sub-sequent identification of susceptibility genes underlying numerous monogenic disorders led to the possibility that sus-ceptibility genes for complex diseases could also be identified using the posi-tional cloning approach. This, coupled with advances in both genotyping tech-nology and the identification of large numbers of microsatellite markers across the genome, led to numerous genome-wide scans to identify susceptibility genes