ijms-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Computational Genomics and Bioinformatics in Microbiology

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Informatics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 January 2026) | Viewed by 2217

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Science, Constructor University, Campus Ring 6, 28759 Bremen, Germany
Interests: genomic data analysis; computational biology; infectiology and epidemiology; synthetic biology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Through continued advancements in high-throughput technology, the raw experimental data extracted from genomes of microorganisms continue to grow at an increasing rate. As viruses, archaea, bacteria, fungi and unicellular protozoa together are the main contributors to the Earth’s total biomass, its climate, and the known spectrum of human, animal and plant diseases, we must rise to this data challenge through scalable computational methods that help to uncover the intrinsic and contextual meaning of their genomes. At the same time, these data allow us to explore microbial genomes at unprecedented resolutions and precisions in terms of evolutionary time, structural organisation and their functional elements. Many of these data are already in public repositories waiting to be (re-)analysed with novel computational and bioinformatics methods.

With this preamble, this Special Issue invites research contributions in comparative, structural, and functional genomics that, from fine-grained details to large-scale organization, use computational methods to microbial genomics data.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, computational and bioinformatics approaches to comparative genomics in the context of emerging infectious diseases, genomic and genetic signatures of cross-species and cross-domain interactions between macro- and microorganisms (e.g., host-pathogen genomics), and large-scale organisational principles of microbial genomes in data-driven structural genomics.

Dr. Andreas Martin Lisewski
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 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-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. 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

  • computational microbial genomics
  • comparative genomics
  • structural genomics
  • functional genomics
  • genomic data bioinformatics

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

25 pages, 2600 KB  
Article
Hybrid Genome Assembly and Annotation of the Basidiomycete Fungus Candolleomyces candolleanus Strain CMU-8613 Using a Cost-Effective Iterative Pipeline
by Edgar Manuel Villa-Villa, Ma. Soledad Vázquez-Garcidueñas and Gerardo Vázquez-Marrufo
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2026, 27(1), 509; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms27010509 - 3 Jan 2026
Viewed by 638
Abstract
The recently described genus Candolleomyces (Basidiomycota, Agaricales, Psathyrellaceae) is now recognized as a distinct taxonomic group separate from Psathyrella. Currently, no fully assembled and accurately annotated genomes of Candolleomyces species are available, limiting our understanding of their physiological traits and biotechnological potential. [...] Read more.
The recently described genus Candolleomyces (Basidiomycota, Agaricales, Psathyrellaceae) is now recognized as a distinct taxonomic group separate from Psathyrella. Currently, no fully assembled and accurately annotated genomes of Candolleomyces species are available, limiting our understanding of their physiological traits and biotechnological potential. Numerous tools exist for fungal genome assembly and annotation, each using different algorithms, resulting in substantial variation in gene content and distribution within the same genome. In this work, a hybrid assembly and annotation of the genome of strain CMU-8613 were performed using pipelines that combine different assembly and annotation tools. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the analyzed strain CMU-8613 belongs to Candolleomyces candolleanus. The assembled genome size ranged from 46.8 Mb (NECAT + Racon) to 59.3 Mb (Canu + Coprinellus micaceus genome assembly), depending on the assembly and polishing strategy. The analysis identified 15–25 secondary metabolite gene clusters (BGCs), depending on the genome assembly and the tools used for BGC prediction. In strain CMU-8613, CAZyme-encoding genes varied across assemblies: 494 genes were detected in the Flye assembly and 453 in NECAT; in both cases, the AA (Auxiliary Activities) and GH (Glycoside Hydrolases) families were the most represented. The diversity of CAZymes observed among Candolleomyces species suggests differences in their saprophytic capacities. Analysis of the MAT-A/MAT-B loci revealed that C. candolleanus possesses a tetrapolar mating system. This study provides the first annotated genome of C. candolleanus, highlighting its enzymatic potential to degrade plant biomass and its capacity to synthesize diverse secondary metabolites. The combination of assembly and annotation tools employed here offers robust alternative strategies for characterizing non-model fungi or species lacking high-quality reference genomes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computational Genomics and Bioinformatics in Microbiology)
Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 1935 KB  
Article
Enteroflow: Automated Pipeline for In Silico Characterization of Enterococcus faecium/faecalis Isolates from Short Reads
by Daniele Smedile, Elena L. Diaconu, Matteo Grelloni, Barbara Middei, Virginia Carfora, Antonio Battisti, Patricia Alba and Alessia Franco
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(19), 9441; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26199441 - 26 Sep 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 829
Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a critical global health challenge that affects both human and animal populations. In accordance with the One Health paradigm, AMR has been monitored in Italy since 2014 in major zoonotic pathogens and opportunistic commensal bacteria from animal productions, in [...] Read more.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a critical global health challenge that affects both human and animal populations. In accordance with the One Health paradigm, AMR has been monitored in Italy since 2014 in major zoonotic pathogens and opportunistic commensal bacteria from animal productions, in the frame of the EU Harmonized Monitoring Program for AMR (according to EU Decision 2013/652, repealed by EU Decision 2020/1729), conducted by the Italian National Reference Center (CRN-AR) and National Reference Laboratory (NRL-AR) for antimicrobial resistance at the “Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana (IZSLT)” (on behalf of the Italian Ministry of Health). Among all monitored bacterial species, the commensal Enterococcus (E.) faecium and E. faecalis have emerged as opportunistic human pathogens with increasing AMR profiles. To address this challenge, the CRN-AR and NRL-AR have developed a custom bioinformatic pipeline, named Enteroflow, which enables the efficient analysis of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) data for the genomic characterization of E. faecium/faecalis isolates. A pivotal feature in this tool is the integration of Nextflow’s workflow manager and Domain Specific Language (DSL), ensuring the reproducibility and scalability of genomic analyses while allowing the monitoring of processes and computational performances. The list of tools included in the workflow spans from short read assemblers to genomic characterization tools for AMR and virulence gene detection and plasmid replicon typing, with results also being combined in structured and usable reports. These developments represent a major step forward in supporting the surveillance efforts and mitigation strategies for AMR in zoonotic and commensal bacteria. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computational Genomics and Bioinformatics in Microbiology)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Back to TopTop