About this Research Topic
Modulation of gene expression allows adaptation to environmental changes. Epigenetic mechanisms contribute to both acute and persistent gene regulation and are hypothesized to be a primary way in which an organism can adapt to the changing environment. Climate change is associated with rapid alterations in critical factors such as clean air and water quality, access to healthy food, and safe living environments. Altered access to these resources changes the organisms’ physiology and epigenetic profile for subsequent generations, impacting the ability of future generations to respond to ongoing climate change.
In humans, climate variability displaces an increasing number of people from their ancestral homes, inducing stressors not only on the displaced but also on the system to which they migrate. Shifting of preferred vector species’ environments introduces diseases such as dengue fever and Lyme disease into previously unaffected human populations. Pregnant women, fetuses, newborns, and children are often disproportionately impacted by diseases affected by climate change.
The purpose of this Research Topic is to identify the latest research on the impact of climate change on the health of our vulnerable pediatric populations. As the climate change-associated impact on human health is often mediated through environmental epigenetic changes, this Research Topic will particularly focus on evaluating epigenetic modifications as they pertain to climate change and pediatric health.
Submission topics include but are not limited to:
• Direct impact of climate change on human epigenetic alteration, particularly of pregnant women, newborns, and children.
• Impact of climate change on epigenetic alteration of food sources, including animal, plant, and other food sources, and the impact of these alterations on pediatric health.
• Impact of environmental stressors (i.e. access to clean drinking water, food insecurity, or excess temperature) on epigenetic alteration.
• Epigenetic analysis of disease-vector-host factors.
• Incidence and/or presentation of diseases with known epigenetic modifications (i.e. fetal growth restriction) as impacted by climate change.
• Promising interventions to improve pediatric health outcomes associated with environmental epigenetic alterations.
• Impact of climate change-related epigenetic alterations in the epidemiology or mechanisms of human epigenetic diseases.
• Climate-change-induced alterations in the microbiome of pregnant women, newborns, and children.
• Climate-change-induced impact of food insecurity, population migration, poverty, and economic productivity on the health of pregnant women, newborns, and children.
We welcome original research, meta-analysis, basic and translational science research, population-based research, and global health research article submissions.
In humans, climate variability displaces an increasing number of people from their ancestral homes, inducing stressors not only on the displaced but also on the system to which they migrate. Shifting of preferred vector species’ environments introduces diseases such as dengue fever and Lyme disease into previously unaffected human populations. Pregnant women, fetuses, newborns, and children are often disproportionately impacted by diseases affected by climate change.
The purpose of this Research Topic is to identify the latest research on the impact of climate change on the health of our vulnerable pediatric populations. As the climate change-associated impact on human health is often mediated through environmental epigenetic changes, this Research Topic will particularly focus on evaluating epigenetic modifications as they pertain to climate change and pediatric health.
Submission topics include but are not limited to:
• Direct impact of climate change on human epigenetic alteration, particularly of pregnant women, newborns, and children.
• Impact of climate change on epigenetic alteration of food sources, including animal, plant, and other food sources, and the impact of these alterations on pediatric health.
• Impact of environmental stressors (i.e. access to clean drinking water, food insecurity, or excess temperature) on epigenetic alteration.
• Epigenetic analysis of disease-vector-host factors.
• Incidence and/or presentation of diseases with known epigenetic modifications (i.e. fetal growth restriction) as impacted by climate change.
• Promising interventions to improve pediatric health outcomes associated with environmental epigenetic alterations.
• Impact of climate change-related epigenetic alterations in the epidemiology or mechanisms of human epigenetic diseases.
• Climate-change-induced alterations in the microbiome of pregnant women, newborns, and children.
• Climate-change-induced impact of food insecurity, population migration, poverty, and economic productivity on the health of pregnant women, newborns, and children.
We welcome original research, meta-analysis, basic and translational science research, population-based research, and global health research article submissions.
Keywords: epigenetics, climate change, pediatric health, environmental stressors, environmental epigenetics
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.
