Metagenomics

Call for Papers

As the emerging paradigm of microbiology, metagenomics is the study of complete microbial communities with the aid of high-throughput data analysis. This promises to unlock vast unexplored regions of the tree of life and their links with human health. In the process, metagenomics provides a unique opportunity for understanding the interconnectedness of life, monitoring and improving human health, providing an understanding of our environment, and providing new clinical approaches to issues effecting human health. Changes in metagenome structure have been linked to diseases as diverse as diabetes, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, obesity, and psoriasis. Computational methods that can effectively elucidate metagenome profiles will be essential for developing an understanding of these diseases as well as for developing diagnostic tools and treatments.

This special issue will focus on computational approaches to various aspects of metagenomics, including the relationship between changes in metagenomic compositions and disease states, symbiosis networks of metagenomes and their response to the environments in which they exist, profiles of microbiomes in the form of pangenomes and coregenomes, and horizontal gene transfer networks. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Determination of metagenomic signatures and their relationship to the environment
• Metagenome-based diagnosis
• Probiotics and their relationship with the human microbiome
• The gut biota and human health
• Microbiomes, drug resistance, and drug design
• Cystic fibrosis and lung microbiota
• Inferring symbiosis network structures from taxonomic abundances and their correlations
• Comparative metagenomics and metatranscriptomics
• Joint analysis of host and microbiome metabolism
• Host disease associated gene variants and microbial diversity relationships
• Pangenomes, coregenomes, and the fluidity of microbiomes
• Data standards for metagenomic experiments
• Construction of intergenomic affinity or horizontal gene transfer networks

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/cmmm/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/cmmm/meta/ according to the following timetable:

Guest Editors

• Hasan H. Otu, Department of Bioengineering, Istanbul Bilgi University and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02115, USA
• Khalid Sayood, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68508, USA
• Ozkan Ufuk Nalbantoglu, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68508, USA