Using Comparative Genomics to Better Understand the Impacts of Environmental Challenges on Fish Physiology and Health

Call for Papers

Wild and captive fish can be exposed to several challenges due to changes in their environment. These include both natural (e.g., daily and seasonal fluctuations in temperature and/or oxygen) and anthropogenic (e.g., toxicants, water acidification, and global warming) stressors. Survival in face of these challenges depends on the fish's ability to change its behavior and physiology (both at the cellular and organismal levels). However, continuous, repeated, or compound exposure to stressors can lead to sustained alterations in fish physiology and behavior; these can have detrimental impacts on the animal's welfare. Therefore, a better understanding of the genes and biological processes underlying the responses to acute, chronic, and compound stress is the key to understand the impacts of stress for both wild and captive populations of fish. We invite authors to submit original research or review articles focused on the use of genomic tools to study the biological pathways involved in both organismal and cellular response to acute and chronic stress and the interactions between different stressors. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Transcriptomic responses of fish living in drastically changing environments (e.g., tide pools, shallow lakes, and estuaries)
• Impacts of chronic exposure to stressors on fish gene transcription, health, and survival
• Genomic mechanisms underlying behavioral responses to stress
• Transcriptomic and organismal changes induced by social stress and underlying molecular mechanisms of different coping styles
• Impact of toxicant exposure on brain gene transcription and behavioral responses of fish to stress
• Genomic mechanisms underlying the actions of endocrine disruptors
• Identification of mechanisms underlying the impacts of acute and chronic stress and/or toxicants on growth, immune function, and reproduction
• Impacts of global warming, acidification, and hypoxia on fish transcriptomes

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijg/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/ijg/fish/ according to the following timetable:

Lead Guest Editor

• Tiago S. Hori, Ocean Sciences Centre, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL , Canada A1C 5S7

Guest Editors

• Lluis Tort, Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, UAB Campus, 08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola de Vallès), Barcelona, Spain
• Michael J. Carvan III, School of Freshwater Sciences, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, 600 E. Greenfield Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53204, USA