Microbial Symbioses in Amphibians and Reptiles

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Herpetology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2023) | Viewed by 128

Special Issue Editors

Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
Interests: environmental adaptation; adaptive evolution; physiology; metabolism; genomics; metagenomics; systems biology; environmental pollution; thermal biology; microbial symbioses
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Chengdu Institute of Biology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
Interests: amphibians and reptiles’ diversity and conservation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The symbiotic microbiotas of animals contribute to the nutrition, metabolism, detoxification, immune system development, behavior, and postembryonic development of the hosts. Their high plasticity in diversity and functions can improve the adaptability of the host to environmental changes and/or conquer new ecological niches. However, at the frontline of the interactions with the environment, the symbiotic microbiota may also become a weakness of the hosts if they are more sensitive to environmental stresses than the host. Understanding the assembly of the symbiotic microbiotas holds importance for the conservation and management of animal populations along with determining their adaptive potential to environmental change. This is particularly true for the amphibians and reptiles, whose wild populations have declined dramatically in recent decades due to environmental changes and diseases. A good knowledge of the microbe–host associations in these animals likely provide us novel insights into their environmental susceptibility and guide us with clues to new conservation approaches. However, we are still far from this understanding, especially with the wild populations in their natural environment.

This topic aims to improve our understanding of the diversity, function, and determinants of symbiotic microbiotas in amphibians and reptiles, with an emphasis on the potential role of symbiotic microbiota in host environmental adaptation or susceptibility. The scopes of this issue include (but are not limited to):

  • Functional analyses on the role of symbiotic microbiota in host–pathogen defenses, ecological adaptation, niche differentiation, functional specialization, development, etc.
  • Comparative studies on the microbial diversity and function between animal populations (or closely related species) adapted to different environments (e.g., along an elevation gradient).
  • The influence of environmental factors and anthropogenic activities on the symbiotic microbiota and its associations with the hosts.
  • Wild studies focus on the drivers (both biotic and abiotic factors) of the variations in the symbiotic microbiota of amphibians and reptiles.
  • Phylosymbiosis, cophylogeny, and coevolution between host and symbiotic microbiota.

Dr. Wei Zhu
Prof. Dr. Jianping Jiang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • adaptation
  • environmental stress
  • herpetology
  • metagenomics
  • microbiome

Published Papers

There is no accepted submissions to this special issue at this moment.
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