There are only 2 months left to submit your paper to the Journal of Animal Ecology Special Feature on animal host–microbe interactions. Through this open call, launched by Executive Editor Ken Wilson in June, we aim to open up the process of publishing Special Features by inviting potential authors from emerging fields to contribute. We welcome papers that take differing, or even contrary, viewpoints as we hope to publish a broad spectrum of ideas on animal host–microbe interactions. The Journal has a long history of publishing papers on parasite and disease ecology, as far back as the first issue of the journal in 1932 with a paper by A.D. Middleton on “Syphilis as a disease of wild rabbits and hares” and most recently on the blog we have an excellent post by Associate Editor Andy Fenton on “The role of ecology in managing vector-borne diseases: Zika and beyond”.

With the recent advent of modern molecular approaches, including next-generation sequencing, it has become possible to characterise the rich resident and transitory microbial communities living within animal hosts, including the host gut microbiome, covert pathogens and endo-symbionts we aim to draw these advances together in this exciting Special Feature.

The recent explosion of this field over the last decade is starting to facilitate a greater understanding of the functional role and consequences of variation in animal host microbiota, and the ecological and evolutionary interactions between the host, its resident microbiota and factors such as disease susceptibility, nutritional ecology, life-history strategies, social networks and animal behaviour. The understanding of host–microbe interactions also has applied relevance for a range of fields, including crop pest control, wildlife conservation and animal, and even human, health.

The submission deadline is 20 December 2016. Manuscripts should be submitted in the usual way through the Journal of Animal Ecology website, more details can be found here. Pre-submission enquiries are not necessary, but any questions can be directed to: admin@journalofanimalecology.org.

We look forward to receiving your contributions!