The intestinal microbiome plays a pivotal role in modulating human physiology, immune responses, and overall health. Environmental stressors such as pollution, antibiotics, dietary changes, psychosocial stress, and climate change exert profound effects on the composition, diversity, and function of gut microbial communities. Recent advances in multi-omics and systems biology have underscored how these factors can disrupt intestinal microbial homeostasis, often triggering or exacerbating pathologies ranging from inflammatory bowel diseases to metabolic and neurodevelopmental disorders. Deciphering the underlying mechanisms by which environmental pressures influence the microbiome will not only shed light on disease etiology but also reveal novel interventional opportunities.

This Research Topic aims to collate cutting-edge research investigating the dynamic interactions between environmental stressors and intestinal ecology throughout the human lifespan. We welcome original research, reviews, and brief reports exploring how factors such as toxins, antibiotics, stress, and malnutrition modulate gut microbial composition and function, and how such shifts influence barrier function, immune maturation, brain-gut communication, and susceptibility to infectious or chronic diseases. We also welcome mechanistically relevant omics studies (e.g., metabolomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, immune profiling, systems biology) even when direct microbiome profiling is not performed, provided authors clearly link findings to microbiome-associated pathways or define microbiome-focused follow-up directions. In addition, studies using non-human model systems (animal, environmental, in vitro, organoid) are encouraged when framed within a One Health perspective and when translational relevance to human and environmental health is clearly articulated. Contributions that highlight innovative tools, mechanistic insights, and translational approaches are strongly encouraged, with the goal of fostering a holistic understanding of the environmental determinants of microbiome-mediated human development and disease risk.

We welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

-Explores how diverse environmental stressors influence the intestinal microbiome.
-Examines impacts on human development, immune function, and disease susceptibility.
-Encourages multi-omics, mechanistic, and translational studies.
-Seeks research on all life stages, from prenatal to adulthood.
-Addresses both acute and chronic exposures to environmental stressors.
-Aims to identify novel therapeutic and preventative strategies targeting microbiome-environment interactions.
-Includes omics studies without direct microbiome profiling when the work is mechanistically relevant to microbiome pathways and/or motivates microbiome-focused follow-up.
-Includes non-human model systems (animal, organoid, in vitro) when they provide mechanistic insight into intestinal microbe–host interactions and/or infection and immunity, and when relevance to human and environmental health (One Health) is clearly articulated.
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Topic Coordinator Nina Simunic Briski is employed by Genos LTD and GlycanAge Ltd. All other Topic Editors declare no competing interests with regards to the Research Topic subject.

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Environmental Stressors and the Intestinal Microbiome: Impacts on Human Development and Disease