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Two years ago, researchers in Germany discovered a new and potentially very powerful biological tool that bacteria have been wielding as a weapon against their plant hosts. By secreting special proteins known as TAL (transcription activator-like) effectors, species of Xanthomonas bacteria can manipulate the genome of the plants that they infect, activating plant genes that allow the bacteria to flourish. In 2009, researchers broke the protein’s code, revealing how TAL effectors bind to host genomes.

As data from the Human Genome Project accumulated, scientists realized that there was a significant amount of variation in the human genome, especially in the form of single-letter changes known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The study of SNPs in the human genome and their influence on disease has been a major focus of genome research over the past decade and has revealed hundreds of SNPs associated with common diseases.