Researchers have mapped how microbes underpin healthy food systems and how we can stop their decline.
Published in Boundaries in science, The “microbiobiomes of the agro-food system” reveals how players at each stage of the food system can restore and protect microbiomas down to help stimulate human and planetary health.
When the microbiomas are diverse and balanced, they keep our foods in safety, nutritious and durable, and our healthy planet, but the quality of these networks decreases throughout the system. This can be seen in the increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR), crop failures, a loss of microbial diversity in the soil, water and human intestine and the increase in the deterioration of food.
The authors say that this is due in part to a combination of highly transformed regimes which disrupt natural microbiomas, the climate crisis, intensive agriculture, the overuse of antibiotics and fertilizers and pollution.
The microbes explain everything, the reason why strawberries rot and how farming salmon falls ill, to the reason why foods produced locally, minimal transformation and rich in probiotics are good for our health. The drop in microbial health is reflected in the health of people and the formulation of planet in the decline in the quality and availability of food, and in the increase in chronic diseases for animals and plants. »»
Dr Paula Fernández-Gómez, first author of the Teagasc Food Research Center and APC Microbiome Ireland
To deal with it, researchers are turning more and more towards the hidden communities of the microbes that underlie these systems, such as those found in plants, animals, soil, agriculture, aquaculture and food processing. This review brings them together on a single card and identifies where microbial networks decompose. This has illuminated when targeted interventions such as probiotics, microbial consortia or bi -fertilizers can have the greatest impact.
“Like microbes work together, we also owe each point of the food system to make microbes choices, from producer to consumption,” said Professor Paul Cotter, also Teagasc Food Research Center.
Straighten
The menu shows how an assembly approach of consumers, agricultural innovators, regulators, educators and scientists, can help protect and restore these hidden networks. The authors say that this will help stimulate the sustainability and resilience of global food systems, as well as the restoration of the health of food sources and therefore animals, people and the planet.
It reveals how each player in the food system can help repair balance:
“Our article details how microbial communities are interconnected along the food chain reveal using advanced omics which have deepened our understanding of the dynamics and interactions of the microbiome like never before,” explains the professor.
System cartography
The microbioma map of billions of bacteria, fungi, viruses and connections between them ensure the hidden links between food, our body and the planet.
To capture the entire system, the authors combined the results of more than 250 ommal studies on microbial interactions in horticulture, silviculture, farming and aquatic environments. They also examined the found microbes covering food processing, food distribution and transport, storage, markets and shops, consumers and their interactions with the human body.
The authors identify several areas where microbiome -based solutions can help improve the components of the food production system, in particular:
Some of these approaches are already used. For example, yeast can reduce post-harvest disintegration in strawberries. Likewise, bacteria can help desert crops to become more resilient in environmental stress. The strengthening of microbiomas can also help reduce the use of antibiotics in livestock, which limits the spread of RAM.
“Healthy microbial networks underlie our existence,” explains the co-author of Dr Tanja Kostic of the ATA of the Austrian Association of Technology and Microbiomes Put Association. “They lead the nutrient cycle, food production, disease resistance, environmental resilience, as well as human and environmental health. »»
Human impact
The degradation of the climate, as well as human activity such as antibiotic and the overuse of pesticides, can disturb the dynamics and interactions of the microbiome. This contributes to the failure of cultures, the deterioration of food, the spread of RAM and chronic diseases in humans, animals and plants.
For example, high use of fertilizers can modify nutrient levels in rivers and lakes, which seriously disrupts aquatic microbiobas. This alteration of microbial levels in aquatic environments can cause algae proliferations that exhaust oxygen in water and kill fish.
Likewise, the use of antibiotics in fish farming to prevent infections can increase RAM in the environment. Other pollutants, such as drugs, pesticides and fertilizers, can increase the AMR genes.
The deciphering specifically of the functional roles of the constituents of the microbiome also remains a challenge. Culture -based approaches are crucial to translate this research into innovations and to understand causal links within the system. Likewise, the authors say that the ommal data should be combined with a synthetic biology, high speed screening and targeted experimental approaches to validate the functions of these microbiomas.