Environmental Genomics and Epigenomics: Response, Development and Disease

Dear Colleagues,

Recent advances in high-throughput sequencing, multi-omics integration, and genome editing technologies have transformed our ability to interrogate how environmental factors influence biological systems across molecular, cellular, and organismal levels. Environmental genomics and epigenomics provide powerful frameworks to understand how external stressors, such as chemical pollutants, climate change, and emerging contaminants, like PFAS and microplastics, modulate gene expression, epigenetic regulation, developmental processes, and disease susceptibility.

There is increasing recognition that environmental exposures during critical windows of development can induce persistent genomic and epigenomic alterations, contributing to long-term health outcomes and transgenerational effects. However, important knowledge gaps remain regarding the mechanistic pathways linking environmental exposure to genomic and epigenomic dysregulation, and how these molecular alterations ultimately lead to developmental abnormalities and disease phenotypes. Despite these advances, the mechanistic links between environmental stimuli, genome regulation, and phenotypic consequences remain incompletely understood, particularly in non-model and aquatic organisms that are highly relevant for environmental risk assessment.

This Special Issue aims to integrate environmental exposure science with genomics and epigenomics to elucidate how pollutants influence molecular pathways leading to altered development and disease, while highlighting the application of advanced omics technologies to uncover mechanistic insights and predictive biomarkers. By integrating transcriptomic, epigenomic, and other multi-omics approaches, this Special Issue seeks to improve our understanding of how environmental stressors reshape gene regulatory networks and cellular pathways, thereby contributing to disease susceptibility and informing environmental risk assessment and public health protection.

We welcome both original research articles and comprehensive reviews addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Environmental regulation of gene expression and epigenetic modifications (DNA methylation, histone modification, non-coding RNAs)
• Developmental programming and early-life exposure effects
• Mechanisms of environmental toxicity and disease pathogenesis
• Multi-omics approaches (transcriptomics, epigenomics, proteomics) in environmental research
• Transgenerational and intergenerational epigenetic inheritance
• Environmental impacts on genome stability and DNA repair pathways
• Bioinformatics and systems biology approaches in environmental genomics
• Human health implications of environmental genomic alterations and their relevance to environmental risk assessment

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. William Tse
Guest Editor

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