Mechanistic insights into host–pathogen interactions, immune evasion, and antimicrobial resistance in aquaculture diseases

Aquaculture is critical for global food security, yet bacterial diseases remain a persistent challenge that threatens animal welfare and farm profitability. Meeting this challenge requires a clearer mechanistic understanding of how a diverse array of pathogens—including bacteria, fungi, and viruses, initiate infection and how hosts respond at the cellular, tissue, organ, individual and population level. Successful pathogens frequently evade innate immune responses and alter inflammatory signaling to persist in specific tissues, shaping both pathology and transmission.This Research Topic aims to advance our understanding of host–pathogen interactions, immune evasion mechanisms, resistance (including antimicrobial and antifungal/antiviral), and omics-driven discoveries in bacterial, fungal, and viral aquatic disease systems. We welcome studies that connect how pathogen factors and host pathways to clear outcomes such as colonization, tissue damage, persistence, transmission, functional genetics, comparative genomics, and multi-omics approaches. While omics technologies and functional genomics have advanced our knowledge of pathogen diversity and host response, key gaps remain regarding the specific mechanisms driving colonization, persistence, and disease outcomes in aquatic species. Work that translates mechanistic insight into improved diagnostics, vaccine targets, antivirulence approaches, or other control measures is especially encouraged. This Research Topic seeks to capture the diversity of infectious threats and foster cross-pathogen comparisons, ultimately informing both broad-based and targeted disease management strategies across various aquaculture settings.To guide submissions, this research topic highlights the following priority areas spanning early infection biology, immune evasion, virulence and resistance mechanisms, gene flow, omics-based discovery, host responses and mechanism-informed interventions:-Initial infection studies : attachment, surface sensing, mucosal colonization, epithelial penetration, tissue tropism, systemic spread.-Immune evasion studies: complement and other innate defense evasion, altered innate signaling, antigenic variation, immune suppression/redirection.-Virulence studies : adhesins/pili, secretion systems, toxins/OMVs, iron acquisition, stress responses, quorum sensing, biofilms.-AMR studies : efflux pumps/permeability, inactivation, target changes, persistence/tolerance, AMR-virulence trade-offs, co-selection on farms.-Gene transfer studies: plasmids/integrons/transposons in water/sediment; phage-mediated transfer across systems.-Omics studies: comparative genomics, metagenomics, bulk and single-cell/spatial transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, dual RNA-seq; multi-omics integration for biomarkers/targets.-Host response: inflammation, barrier damage, cell death, repair, correlates of protection.-Models and tools: fish cell/primary cell/ex vivo models, in vivo imaging, single-cell/spatial methods.-Interventions: vaccines/adjuvants, antivirulence, immunomodulation, probiotics/synbiotics, phage/immune-based strategies, diagnostic biomarkers.Submissions of Original Research, Systematic Review, Methods, Review, Clinical Trial, Mini Review, Brief Research Report, Perspective, General Commentary, Opinion, and FAIR² are welcome. Topic editors: Hasan C. Tekedar, Esteban Soto Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/78260/mechanistic-insights-into-host-pathogen-interactions-immune-evasion-and-antimicrobial-resistance-in-aquaculture-diseases