About this Research Topic
The environmental conditions also influence the health status of aquatic animals. The presence of antibiotics, all sorts of plastics, and other pollutants in water bodies, which are important reservoirs for these compounds, is a continuous threat to microbial diversity and ecosystem functions, wildlife fauna, and aquaculture species.
Aquaculture is the leading source of aquatic food for humans that substantially contributes to global food production. It is estimated that the world’s demand for aquatic food will increase by around 13% in the following years, reaching 204 million tons by 2030. In this context, aquaculture will cover this demand. Moreover, when the input of capture fisheries to global food supplies is unlikely to grow significantly. One of the consistent problems in aquaculture is health management. The increased fish density results in elevated stress often leading to outbreaks of deadly diseases induced by viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi.
The goal of this Research Topic is to offer a comprehensive view of critical issues influencing disease and aquatic species and how to manage them. The Research Topic is open to contributions integrating different approaches used to understand how immune aspects of the disease process are altered by the other environmental conditions aquatic organisms live in.
Contributions covering all marine species, their environments, ecosystems, and the influence of climate change or pollution on the development of disease and immune response are welcomed.
All scientists and researchers interested in this Research Topic are invited to submit their work in the form of Original Research, Review, Mini-Review, and Perspective articles, offering new insights into the immune aspects of aquatic organisms altered by environmental conditions.
We welcome manuscripts focusing on, but not limited to, the following sub-topics:
• Research that integrates classical (cytological, histological techniques) with newly adopted techniques such as scRNA-seq, Multiome, NGS, dual transcriptomics, eDNA assessment, and their closely associated.
• Critical reviews clearly delineating future perspectives are also welcome.
Keywords: Aquaculture, aquatic organisms, microbiome, water pollutants, fish immunology
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.