Single-cell and spatial-omic technologies are providing unprecedented detail into the molecular principles underlying a wide range of developmental and disease contexts. These observations are substantially deepening many areas of biological research. However, despite the increasing application of these techniques to biological problems we are only revealing the tip of the iceberg, and there exist large gaps in our understanding of the behavior of single cells in vitro and in vivo that need to be filled. Additionally, the development of robust analytical tools and meta-analysis of existing data lag behind the rapid generation of new data. Thus, the tremendous power of single-cell and spatial technologies has yet to be fully harnessed, and there are significant opportunities to exploit these techniques in a systematic manner.

To help address these problems, we are organizing a special issue of Zoological Research that is focused on single-cell and spatial-omics including analysis. We welcome all manuscripts that have a single-cell or spatial-omics component, and are particularly interested in those addressing the following topics: 

·       Novel data and reanalysis of in vivo and in vitro animal and human disease states and models

·       New data for developmental processes

·       Neglected model systems lacking single-cell and spatial-omic data

·       Novel single-cell and spatial-omic analysis tools

·       Meta-analysis and integration of existing single-cell and spatial-omic datasets

·       Single-cell proteomics, epigenetics, and metabolomics

·       Other new single-cell and spatial-omic experimental techniques

·       Application of single-cell technologies into other areas of biology, e.g., HiC, RNA-DNA interactions

·       Applications of single-cell and spatial-omic techniques to understand evolutionary biology questions

Contributions can be in any format of Zoological Research: Research articles, Reviews and Mini-Reviews, Perspectives and Commentaries. For further details, please see the author's guidelines (https://www.zoores.ac.cn/news/guideline.htm).

Manuscripts should be submitted online at: https://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/zr before August 31, 2023. Authors should indicate in the Cover Letter that the manuscript is submitted to the “Single-Cell and Spatial Genomics Special Issue”.

Special issue editors:

·       Miguel A. Esteban (BGI Research; miguelesteban@genomics.cn)

·       Longqi Liu (BGI Research; liulongqi@genomics.cn)

·       Cao Gang (Huazhong Agricultural University; gcao@mail.hzau.edu.cn)

·       Andrew P. Hutchins (Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen; andrewh@sustech.edu.cn)