Structural and Evolutionary Perspectives on Immunogenetic Variation in Autoimmune and Related Disorders
A special issue of Genes (ISSN 2073-4425). This special issue belongs to the section "Human Genomics and Genetic Diseases".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 January 2026 | Viewed by 173
Special Issue Editors
Interests: structural bioinformatics; protein evolution and stability; structural evolution; gene polymorphisms; functional genomics; immunological biomarkers; autoinflammatory and autoimmune diseases; immunogenetics; non-coding regulatory variants; molecular mechanisms of immune dysregulation; human genetic diseases
Interests: gene therapy; target genes; biomarkers; diabetes; inflammatory lung disease; stem cell therapy; autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue explores immunological biomarkers in autoimmune, autoinflammatory, and non-autoimmune disorders with immune involvement through evolutionary, structural, and genomic perspectives, particularly in the context of human genetic diseases. It focuses on uncovering how genetic variation—including polymorphisms in both coding (exonic) and non-coding (intronic, regulatory) regions—shapes the structure, function, and regulation of immune-related proteins.
While existing approaches primarily discuss genetic associations and epigenetic regulation, this Special Issue emphasizes the evolutionary significance and functional consequences of such polymorphisms. Structural biology and biophysics provide the means to assess how molecular alterations affect protein conformation, interactions, and function. These effects can be examined through comparative and population-level evolutionary analyses to determine their impact on immune regulation, disease susceptibility, and organismal fitness and how they affect disease progression or severity. A structural biology approach can prove useful in assessing the functional consequences of such polymorphisms, particularly those involved in multiple immune-mediated disorders. Additionally, comparative evolutionary analyses can be utilized to discern conserved or divergent mechanisms of immune regulation across various diseases. The evolution of proteins and proteomes is governed by interacting processes at the atomic and population level. Mutations in coding regions can impact functional sites, folding, and expression, while non-coding polymorphisms may affect gene regulation, splicing, or transcript stability. Both can influence systems-level immune processes and organismal fitness. Though arising at the individual level, these molecular changes gain evolutionary significance through population-level selection pressures.
The Special Issue welcomes original research and review articles that integrate genomics, structural biology, biophysics, evolutionary or functional analysis to reveal the biological impact of immunogenetic variation in complex diseases. We particularly seek studies that explore the evolution of immune genes and proteins, the conservation or divergence of molecular mechanisms across species or populations, and how selection pressures have influenced current human immunogenetic variation. We also encourage the submission of articles that combine genomics, structural biology, functional assays, biophysics, and evolutionary modeling.
Dr. Athena Andreou
Guest Editor
Dr. Catriona Kelly
Co-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. Genes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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
- gene polymorphisms
- exonic and intronic variants
- structural biology
- biophysical analysis
- structural evolution
- protein molecular function and evolution
- immunological biomarkers
- human genetic diseases
- evolutionary genomics
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