How do environmental chemicals affect microbial communities in the arable soil and in the digestive tract of animals and humans – and thus affect their health? This question is at the heart of the interfaculty research cooperation One Health at the University of Bern. The comprehensive and networked One Health approach was first described in 2004. Since then, it has become increasingly important. This is probably also due to the coronavirus pandemic. The leap of the virus from an (as yet unknown) animal to us humans made a large part of the population more aware of the increased vulnerability of our modern society.
Healthy food from a sustainable environment
The interfaculty research cooperation One Health has been in existence since 2018 and is led by plant biologist Matthias Erb and gastrointestinal specialist Andrew Macpherson. Together with their colleagues from a total of nine different research groups, they use an interdisciplinary approach to paint a picture that does justice to the complexity of agricultural production systems and the manifold aspects of healthy nutrition.
“The focus is on how environmental chemicals affect the health of soil, plants, animals and humans,” says Erb. Microbial communities, i.e. the tiny creatures found everywhere in the soil, on plants and in the intestines of animals and humans, play an important role. They are influenced by potentially toxic substances – such as arsenic, pesticides and certain plant metabolites – and thus determine the health of living organisms along the food chain.
“Two hundred years ago, there was no chemical industry. Today, we are exposed to many more different substances,” says Macpherson. “At the same time, the number of people suffering from chronic bowel inflammation has increased,” he adds. These long-lasting and painful symptoms are usually associated with a change in the composition of the intestinal flora, even though the causes of the symptoms are often unknown, with people in the dark about their origin.
Unique starting position
With their interdisciplinary approach, the experts from microbiology, environmental sciences, plant and animal health, bioinformatics and human medicine involved in OneHealth want to shed more light on this darkness. Macpherson points out the unique starting position at the University of Bern, where exactly the infrastructure and specific know-how are available that are needed for the success of their project.
In their work, they have already come across all sorts of exciting results, says Erb, citing as an example the insights that the One Health consortium has gained about a group of substances known as benzoxazinoids. These metabolic products are important for plant health, because with the benzoxazinoids, corn and wheat plants protect themselves against insects, for example by making it difficult for the insects to digest the plant leaves.
“We investigated whether the substances have a negative impact not only on insects, but also on cows who consume these substances via corn silage,” says Erb. This does not seem to be the case: Milk yield and quality, for example, remain the same, says Erb. Of course, the One Health consortium was also interested in the effects of these substances on microbes in the human digestive tract. It was shown that the substances positively influence the composition of the microbial communities. “We are now investigating the therapeutic potential of these promising results,” says Erb.