Marine biodiversity refers to the variety of life forms in the oceans, ranging from animals, plants, and microorganisms. Understanding these different marine life forms are of tremendous importance to both basic and applied sciences. On the other hand, biodiversity loss due to climate change is an urgent global environmental threat.
Such interactions between marine organisms and their environment need to be further explored using emerging omics tools. Omics science refers to the field of study in biological sciences that aims to reveal, characterize, and quantify biological molecules, including but not limited to genomics and transcriptomics. For example, we still know little about the biodiversity of marine biotic community and their succession mechanism among different seasons. As climate change causes changes in the aquatic environment, marine organisms alter their gene expression to adapt. Through transcriptomics, it is possible to identify signaling pathways that are altered by marine organisms in response to temperature, altered food availability, and other stresses. Understanding stress signaling pathways can identify potential key cellular regulatory components (e.g., enzymes and non-coding RNAs such as microRNAs) that will help organisms adapt to stress.
This Research Topic focuses on the use of omics methods, particularly genomics and transcriptomics, to understand the hidden biology of marine biodiversity, their biogeography, and responses to climate change in their environments. It calls for both original research and review articles related to the adaptation and diversity of marine biodiversity (animals, plants, microorganisms) in the following research topics:
• Marine biodiversity and its evolution as revealed by genomic tools, including environmental DNA, DNA barcoding, and metagenomes.
• Genomic studies of ecological adaptation mechanism at species or population level of marine organisms;
• Genomic, epigenomic or transcriptomic response of marine organisms to the changing environment: genetic variation, plasticity, or gene regulation network.
Marine biodiversity refers to the variety of life forms in the oceans, ranging from animals, plants, and microorganisms. Understanding these different marine life forms are of tremendous importance to both basic and applied sciences. On the other hand, biodiversity loss due to climate change is an urgent global environmental threat.
Such interactions between marine organisms and their environment need to be further explored using emerging omics tools. Omics science refers to the field of study in biological sciences that aims to reveal, characterize, and quantify biological molecules, including but not limited to genomics and transcriptomics. For example, we still know little about the biodiversity of marine biotic community and their succession mechanism among different seasons. As climate change causes changes in the aquatic environment, marine organisms alter their gene expression to adapt. Through transcriptomics, it is possible to identify signaling pathways that are altered by marine organisms in response to temperature, altered food availability, and other stresses. Understanding stress signaling pathways can identify potential key cellular regulatory components (e.g., enzymes and non-coding RNAs such as microRNAs) that will help organisms adapt to stress.
This Research Topic focuses on the use of omics methods, particularly genomics and transcriptomics, to understand the hidden biology of marine biodiversity, their biogeography, and responses to climate change in their environments. It calls for both original research and review articles related to the adaptation and diversity of marine biodiversity (animals, plants, microorganisms) in the following research topics:
• Marine biodiversity and its evolution as revealed by genomic tools, including environmental DNA, DNA barcoding, and metagenomes.
• Genomic studies of ecological adaptation mechanism at species or population level of marine organisms;
• Genomic, epigenomic or transcriptomic response of marine organisms to the changing environment: genetic variation, plasticity, or gene regulation network.
