About this Research Topic
The Phylum Mollusca is second largest animal phylum on the blue planet. The marine environment covers about 70% of Earth’s surface, and the molluscs have conquered most habitats in the ocean, with their distributions ranging from the intertidal zone, the open ocean to the deep sea and extreme environments like hydrothermal vents. Molluscs have many interesting biological and adaptive characteristics such as complex biphasic life-cycles or striking varieties of morphological phenotypes, and are ideally suited as models to study on evolution in the context of marine habitats and their changes.
The genesis of molluscan biodiversity is still not well understood at multiple levels of organization, ranging from how molluscs diversity originated, the developmental genetic basis of such diversity, and how they diversify in nature. In addition, this research topic is also interested in how molluscs respond and adapt to environmental changes including global climate change and temporal extreme environmental change. While much work has been done on the fitness advantages and physical response of such plasticity, e.g. temperature-adaptive changes in mRNA sequence and in the protein macromolecule of the intertidal molluscs and physical plasticity of the oysters,, less has been done addressing plastic phenotypes and the genetic basis behind to facilitate response and adaptation to the local environment.
In this Research Topic, we welcome and consider related studies to explore biodiversity, evolution, and the response of exogenous (e.g., global environmental change, bacterial regulation) or endogenous cues in marine molluscs, including but not limited to, Original Research Articles, Review articles, Methods, Brief Research Reports, and Perspective articles on the following subtopics:
• Development and behaviour response (e.g., settlement behaviour, larval metamorphosis) of molluscs to exogenous and endogenous environmental changes (e.g., bacteria, neuroendocrine, etc.)
• Adaptation of molluscs to global climate change (temperature, CO2, hypoxia) and extreme environmental change (e.g., intertidal, deep-sea, etc.)
• Diversity and evolution of molluscs (e.g., biogeographic patterns, molecular evolution in DNA, mRNA and proteins, functional studies of adaptative traits, etc.)
The genesis of molluscan biodiversity is still not well understood at multiple levels of organization, ranging from how molluscs diversity originated, the developmental genetic basis of such diversity, and how they diversify in nature. In addition, this research topic is also interested in how molluscs respond and adapt to environmental changes including global climate change and temporal extreme environmental change. While much work has been done on the fitness advantages and physical response of such plasticity, e.g. temperature-adaptive changes in mRNA sequence and in the protein macromolecule of the intertidal molluscs and physical plasticity of the oysters,, less has been done addressing plastic phenotypes and the genetic basis behind to facilitate response and adaptation to the local environment.
In this Research Topic, we welcome and consider related studies to explore biodiversity, evolution, and the response of exogenous (e.g., global environmental change, bacterial regulation) or endogenous cues in marine molluscs, including but not limited to, Original Research Articles, Review articles, Methods, Brief Research Reports, and Perspective articles on the following subtopics:
• Development and behaviour response (e.g., settlement behaviour, larval metamorphosis) of molluscs to exogenous and endogenous environmental changes (e.g., bacteria, neuroendocrine, etc.)
• Adaptation of molluscs to global climate change (temperature, CO2, hypoxia) and extreme environmental change (e.g., intertidal, deep-sea, etc.)
• Diversity and evolution of molluscs (e.g., biogeographic patterns, molecular evolution in DNA, mRNA and proteins, functional studies of adaptative traits, etc.)
Keywords: Molusca, larval biology, biofilm, evolution, adaption, biodiversity
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