Animals, including humans, can be infected by many microbial species, such as fungal pathogens, which can cause serious diseases. For example, human fungal pathogens that cause invasive infections, such as Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans, and Aspergillus fumigatus, are responsible for more than one million deaths every year. Nevertheless, not all animal fungal pathogens are harmful to humans and many are beneficial. For example, fungal pathogens are used for the biocontrol of mosquitoes, effectively impeding transmission of many life-threatening human diseases. Regardless of whether pathogenic fungi have positive or negative effects on human health, we need to gain a deeper understanding of their biology.
High-throughput technologies and systems biology, especially omics technologies and analytical approaches, have largely accelerated research in the life sciences. Although new omics sequencing technologies are developed every year, most advances and applications are mainly focused on model species and have not promoted fungal pathogenesis research. Thus, this topic encourages the application of newly developed omics technologies for research on human and animal fungal pathogens. This topic also seeks omics-originated studies, especially those that identify genome-wide pathogenic patterns and/or key pathogenic factors. The collective studies will provide valuable insight into in the application of omics technologies to explore human and animal fungal pathogens and accelerate our understanding of mechanisms of pathogenesis, which in turn will assist in the development of new and more effective therapies.
Authors are encouraged to submit Original Research Articles, Brief Research Reports, Data Reports, Methods, Mini-Reviews/Reviews, and Opinions on the following aspects of human and animal fungal pathogens:
- Application of newly developed omics technologies, including new sequencing methods that have been developed in model species but not widely applied in fungal pathogens, for elucidating pathogenic mechanisms.
- Omics-based studies that explore genome-wide pathogenic patterns/mechanisms, including genomics (e.g. high-quality genome assemblies and findings), transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, phenomics, transcriptional and/or translational modifications, fluxomics, interact-omics, meta-omics, etc.
- The function and regulation of key genes, transcripts, proteins, metabolites, pathways, DNA elements, etc. involved in pathogenesis. They should be identified from omics data, and omics analyses should be important components in the main text.
- Omics-based biological networks of fungal pathogens, including reconstruction, modeling, analysis and integration of gene co-expression networks, gene/protein regulatory networks, metabolic networks, etc.
Please note: descriptive studies that are solely based on amplicon (eg. 16S rRNA) profiles will not be considered unless they are accompanied by a clear hypothesis and experimentation and provide insight into the microbiological system or process being studied.
Animals, including humans, can be infected by many microbial species, such as fungal pathogens, which can cause serious diseases. For example, human fungal pathogens that cause invasive infections, such as Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans, and Aspergillus fumigatus, are responsible for more than one million deaths every year. Nevertheless, not all animal fungal pathogens are harmful to humans and many are beneficial. For example, fungal pathogens are used for the biocontrol of mosquitoes, effectively impeding transmission of many life-threatening human diseases. Regardless of whether pathogenic fungi have positive or negative effects on human health, we need to gain a deeper understanding of their biology.
High-throughput technologies and systems biology, especially omics technologies and analytical approaches, have largely accelerated research in the life sciences. Although new omics sequencing technologies are developed every year, most advances and applications are mainly focused on model species and have not promoted fungal pathogenesis research. Thus, this topic encourages the application of newly developed omics technologies for research on human and animal fungal pathogens. This topic also seeks omics-originated studies, especially those that identify genome-wide pathogenic patterns and/or key pathogenic factors. The collective studies will provide valuable insight into in the application of omics technologies to explore human and animal fungal pathogens and accelerate our understanding of mechanisms of pathogenesis, which in turn will assist in the development of new and more effective therapies.
Authors are encouraged to submit Original Research Articles, Brief Research Reports, Data Reports, Methods, Mini-Reviews/Reviews, and Opinions on the following aspects of human and animal fungal pathogens:
- Application of newly developed omics technologies, including new sequencing methods that have been developed in model species but not widely applied in fungal pathogens, for elucidating pathogenic mechanisms.
- Omics-based studies that explore genome-wide pathogenic patterns/mechanisms, including genomics (e.g. high-quality genome assemblies and findings), transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, phenomics, transcriptional and/or translational modifications, fluxomics, interact-omics, meta-omics, etc.
- The function and regulation of key genes, transcripts, proteins, metabolites, pathways, DNA elements, etc. involved in pathogenesis. They should be identified from omics data, and omics analyses should be important components in the main text.
- Omics-based biological networks of fungal pathogens, including reconstruction, modeling, analysis and integration of gene co-expression networks, gene/protein regulatory networks, metabolic networks, etc.
Please note: descriptive studies that are solely based on amplicon (eg. 16S rRNA) profiles will not be considered unless they are accompanied by a clear hypothesis and experimentation and provide insight into the microbiological system or process being studied.
