Water Pollution as a Driver of Disease and Health Impairment in Aquaculture: Microbiomes, Pathogens, and Genomic Responses

Water pollution represents one of the most pervasive threats to aquatic ecosystems and commercial aquaculture operations worldwide. Farmed species are exposed to a broad spectrum of contaminants, including heavy metals, agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, and plastic-derived pollutants such as microplastics and nanoplastics, introduced through agricultural runoff, industrial discharge, and urban wastewater. These contaminants exert complex, often compounding effects on the physiology, immunity, gut microbiota, and genome integrity of aquatic animals. As global aquaculture production intensifies to meet food security targets, the intersection of environmental contamination and animal health has become an urgent priority. Despite growing evidence of harm, the precise mechanisms by which water pollutants drive disease susceptibility and health impairment in cultured aquatic species remain poorly understood.This Research Topic addresses a critical knowledge gap: how water pollution from chemical contaminants to plastic particulates mechanistically disrupts the health and disease status of aquaculture species. Recent advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS), metagenomics, and multi-omics platforms now allow researchers to interrogate pollutant effects at the molecular, microbial, and genomic level with unprecedented resolution. Yet these tools have not been systematically applied to the intersection of pollution and aquaculture health management.The aim is to consolidate emerging evidence across these disciplines, clarify causal relationships between pollutant exposure and disease outcomes, and identify promising targets for health intervention. By bringing together research on gut microbiome disruption, pathogen-pollution interactions, and pollution-driven genomic instability in farmed organisms, this Research Topic will provide the mechanistic and translational knowledge needed to strengthen disease prevention and health management practices in aquaculture systems.We welcome contributions centred on commercially relevant aquaculture species, including finfish, shrimp, molluscs, and other farmed aquatic organisms, and invite submissions addressing the following themes:1. Gut health and the intestinal microbiome under chemical and plastic pollutant exposure.2. Microplastic and nanoplastic effects on host genomics, epigenomics, and metabolic function.3. Pollutant-pathogen interactions: how contaminant load modulates pathogen prevalence, virulence, and transmission dynamics in aquaculture environments.4. Microbial community dynamics in polluted production systems, with a focus on implications for pathogen reservoirs and disease risk.5. NGS-based approaches for detecting pollution-induced genomic alterations and mutations in host species.Original Research, Review, Mini Review, Hypothesis and Theory, and Perspective articles are encouraged. All submissions should be grounded in aquaculture-relevant contexts and provide insights applicable to disease prevention, health monitoring, or sustainable aquaculture management. Topic editors: Goutam Banerjee, Anuj Tyagi Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/82915/water-pollution-as-a-driver-of-disease-and-health-impairment-in-aquaculture-microbiomes-pathogens-and-genomic-responses