Finding drug targets in microbial genomes

In this era of genomic science, knowledge about biological function is inte grated increasingly with DNA sequence data. One area that has been signific antly impacted by this accumulation of information is the discovery of drug s to treat microbial infections. Genome sequencing and bioinformatics is dr iving the discovery and development of novel classes of broad-spectrum anti microbial compounds, and could enable medical science to keep pace with the increasing resistance of bacteria, fungi and parasites to current antimicr obials. This review discusses the use of genomic information in the rapid i dentification of target genes for antimicrobial drug discovery.