This special issue of the New Zealand Journal of Zoology invites submissions with a focus on the diverse interactions of animals with the microbial world.
From the origin of the eukaryotic cell 2 billion years ago, to nearly all aspects of animal existence today and in the future, microbes continue to be revealed as key contributors to life on Earth as we know it. Animals interact in diverse ways with their microbial partners. These interactions can be highly beneficial or detrimental and everything in between. Animal-microbe relationships can be short-term flings such as gut microbe responses to shifting animal diets or habits, last many millennia like insect-intracellular symbionts or be terminal to the host as in the case of some fungal pathogens. This special issue seeks to focus on zoological interrogations involving often invisible, yet important, microbial partners.
We invite submissions that address the myriad of animal-microbial interactions, including but not limited to: disease-causing microbes, microbiota of unusual or unique fauna, microbe-animal or holobiont evolution, beneficial functions of microbes in animal health and immunity, biotechnological potential of animal-associated microbes, acquisition, assembly and transmission of microbes within and across animal hosts and the environment. Submissions concerning the place of microbes within animal life in te ao Māori (Māori worldview) or other indigenous perspectives are also highly encouraged.
