Host-Associated Microbial Symbioses in Aquaculture: Early-Life Assembly, Functional Resilience, and Microbiome-Guided Management

Aquaculture is expected to play an increasingly important role in global food security, yet the sector faces mounting pressures from intensification, disease outbreaks, climate variability, feed reformulation, pollution, and the need to reduce antimicrobial inputs. In this context, cultured aquatic animals should not be viewed as isolated hosts, but as metaorganisms whose biology is closely shaped by their associated microbial symbionts. These microbial communities inhabit the skin, gills, gut, mucus, reproductive tissues, eggs, larvae, and live-feed interfaces, where they influence digestion, nutrient transformation, immune development, epithelial integrity, stress tolerance, and resistance to opportunistic pathogens.Substantial progress has been made in characterizing microbial diversity in aquaculture systems and in describing broad environment-microbe-host interactions. However, several fundamental questions remain unresolved. This Research Topic aims to place host-associated microbial symbioses at the center of aquaculture microbiology. Rather than focusing mainly on ecosystem-level biodiversity surveys or general environmental microbiology, this collection will emphasize the assembly, persistence, functional stability, disturbance response, and restoration of microbial symbioses associated with aquaculture hosts, from hatchery and grow-out stages through to post-harvest holding environments. We welcome contributions that move beyond descriptive profiling and provide mechanistic, functional, experimental, or translational insights. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:o Early-life assembly of host-associated microbiomes in aquaculture species, including eggs, larvae, juveniles, and broodstock.o Tissue-specific microbial symbioses in skin, gill, gut, mucus, reproductive tissues, and other host-associated niches.o Functional resilience and stability of host-associated microbiomes under stressors such as warming, hypoxia, salinity shifts, acidification, pollutants, antibiotics, and dietary change.o Dysbiosis, pathobiont expansion, and microbiome tipping points linked to disease susceptibility in aquaculture animals.o Recovery trajectories and reassembly dynamics of microbial symbioses following disturbance or therapeutic intervention.o Development and validation of microbiome-guided interventions, including probiotics, synbiotics, postbiotics, live-feed microbiome management, phage-assisted approaches, and defined microbial consortia.o Comparative studies across aquaculture species, rearing systems, and marine/freshwater environments that reveal general principles of host-associated symbiosis.o Microbial community dynamics under post-harvest crowding and deteriorating water quality, and stress-induced shifts in host-associated microbiomes. Topic editors: Yuhang Hong, Changqing Liu, Xiaodi Hu Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81517/host-associated-microbial-symbioses-in-aquaculture-early-life-assembly-functional-resilience-and-microbiome-guided-management