Abstract
M.Sc. (Biochemistry)
The vitamin D receptor (VDR) has been implicated in communicable diseases such as
tuberculosis (TB), HIV infection and leprosy, as well as development or prognosis of noncommunicable
diseases such as multiple sclerosis, lupus, type I diabetes mellitus, and osteoporosis.
The burden of these diseases is often higher in specific population groups, for instance the higher TB
burden of African as compared to White South Africans. Besides genetics, epigenetic factors play a
role in differential disease susceptibility and prognosis between population groups. To uncover the
cause of differential susceptibility to VDR-related diseases, it is crucial that population group-specific
variations in genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that regulate VDR are identified. Increases in
predictive power of in silico tools, and the recent explosion in availability of genome-wide genetic and
epigenetic data made bioinformatics an attractive option to preselect regions to study in the VDR...