Understanding and Utilizing Populations and Phenotypes in Animal Genomics Research
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Genetics and Genomics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2022) | Viewed by 17972
Special Issue Editor
Interests: genetic improvement of animal health and production; dairy cattle management and genetic evaluations; population structure and adaptation; genomic tool development; wildlife and indigenous population conservation; canine genetics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Successful genomics studies rely heavily on understanding the population and phenotypes being analysed. Most importantly, interpretation of data and recommendations generated from studies depends upon our understanding of the intricacies, limitations, and strengths of our data. In the face of today’s rapidly changing world of technologies, initiatives, funding, and scientific understanding, researchers are tasked with developing new strategies to understand biology and foster change.
To this end, the strategic use of animal populations and the development of phenotypic assessment is a priority. Analysis methods looking for signatures of selection on the genome rely on calculated use of populations, breeds, and species to infer what selection enacted upon a population to cause genetic change. Similarly, exploring admixed populations for conservation, selection, and management requires in-depth understanding of population structure. In addition, researchers are pursuing new, complex traits and revisiting well-studied traits with new approaches. Digital agriculture, remote sensing, and internal biological sensors are exciting new opportunities to generate novel phenotypes for use in genomics research. These technologies offer an abundance of datapoints collected through minimally invasive measures at a lower cost ratio. They are particularly valuable for capturing data among large livestock populations or sensitive wild populations. Research is also pursuing rigorous, intense, biological phenotyping to refine our understanding of biological regulation of disease and performance. Efforts are aimed at not only identifying causative mutations but also factors such as epigenetic regulation and systems biology.
This special issue of Animals - Understanding and Utilizing Populations and Phenotypes in Animal Genomics Research is aimed at highlighting studies with novel phenotypes or novel approaches for rigorously assessing a phenotype to better understand genetic regulation. This includes but is not limited to novel phenotypic assessment of behaviour and well-being in animals, the use of digital technologies, and intensive longitudinal sample collection over time. It is also aimed at emphasizing strategic use of populations to extrapolate the influences of genetic selection and evolution on the genome. Specific consideration will be given to studies with lower sample sizes of rare species or particularly difficult and intensive phenotyping parameters. We also acknowledge that negative results are important outcomes in scientific literature. Considering the aim of this special issue, Understanding and Utilizing Populations and Phenotypes in Animal Genomics Research, articles should emphasize the uniqueness of their population and/or phenotypes and both strengths and weaknesses of the data and interpretation of results. Accepted submissions will further our knowledge and use of populations and phenotypes in animal genomics research which will ultimately improve our biological understanding and management of traits in animal species.
Dr. Heather Huson
Guest Editor
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
- animal genetics
- phenotype
- genome-wide association study
- signatures of selection
- cross species comparison
- longitudinal studies
- digital agriculture
- remote sensing
- behavior
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