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 270
Special Issue Editors
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
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
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Keywords
- adaptation
- environmental stress
- herpetology
- metagenomics
- microbiome
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