Immune Mechanisms of Aquatic Animals: Genomic and Transcriptomic Perspectives
A Special Issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615) belonging to the section "Aquatic Animals".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 868
Editors
Interests: fish immunology; humoral immunity; B cell signaling; antimicrobial activities
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The rapid expansion of aquaculture has intensified the need to understand host immune defense mechanisms against emerging pathogens. Recent advances in high-throughput omics are transforming the field from descriptive observations to systems-level insights. This Special Issue will focus specifically on how genomic and transcriptomic approaches—individually or in combination—can elucidate the molecular architecture of immune responses in aquatic species. Genomics provides the blueprint for disease resistance through genome-wide association studies (GWASs) and quantitative trait locus mapping, while transcriptomics captures dynamic gene expression programs during pathogen challenges. We encourage the submission of studies that bridge these levels of analysis, such as integrating GWASs with RNA-seq to anchor genetic signals to functional immune pathways or combining bulk transcriptomics with single-cell resolution to resolve cellular heterogeneity.
By focusing on genomic and transcriptomic perspectives, this Special Issue aims to showcase recent mechanistic discoveries that inform selective breeding, vaccine development, and immunostimulatory strategies. We seek contributions that move beyond descriptive gene lists toward functional validation, pathway-level interpretation, and translational applications for aquaculture health management.
Dr. Liting Wu
Dr. Qingjian Liang
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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-anonymized 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
- aquaculture immunology
- disease resistance
- host–pathogen interaction
- immunometabolism
- genomics
- transcriptomics
- GWAS
- RNA-seq
- regulatory non-coding RNAs
- single-cell sequencing
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