One Health - Interfaculty Research Cooperation

One Health: Cascading and Microbiome-Dependent Effects on Multitrophic Health"

The Interfaculty Research Cooperation "One Health: Cascading and Microbiome-Dependent Effects on Multitrophic Health" examines causal relationships between environmental, animal and human health. We investigate how environmental chemicals such as heavy metals, pesticides and plant secondary metabolites affect microbial communities and health at the interfaces between soils, plants, animals and humans. By unraveling underlying mechanisms, our work contributes to a better understanding of integrated health and supports the development of healthy food chains.

"One Health" integrates the two main topics of sustainability and health/medicine at the University of Bern. Nine groups from the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Medicine and Vetsuisse with expertise in microbiology, environmental sciences, plant and animal health, human medicine and bioinformatics are working together to push the frontiers of knowledge.

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PRIMA Grant- ‘TraPPP - Tracing plant protection products across the environment – Source, transport, sink, and relevance for risk assessment’

Aurea C. Chiaia-Hernández has been awarded with the SNSF PRIMA grant aimed at excellent women in research. Her proposed research- ‘TraPPP’ aims to understand the transport and transformation of current-use plant protection products (PPPs) across essential compartments of the environment (at landscape scale) as well as their fate in lake sediments. The proposed research is expected to be a fundamental breakthrough because, for the first time, it will provide a process-based quantitative understanding of the cycling of current-use PPPs across the environment and at different phases as well as investigate systematically resuspension and atmospheric transport of PPPs, processes often neglected.

Production of germ-free mosquitoes via transient colonisation allows stage-specific investigation of host–microbiota interactions

A paper co-authored by Sigi Hapelmeier has been published by `Nature Communications`. Hapfelmeier focused on the auxotrophic E. coli as the key bacterial tool, which enabled the reversible colonisation of the larvae, so they can develop normally, until one decolonizes them again of E. Coli. This new method allows the generation of germ-free adults that have no developmental deficits (compared to existing methods today). The approach allows to further elucidate the biological role of microbes for larval development at different stages by analysing the effects of decolonisation at different stages in a very clean system, as well as to study the role functions of microbiota in the adults by comparing germ-free with colonised adults.

Christelle Robert receives Theodor Kocher prize for her work on natural chemicals in biological interactions

Christelle Robert has been awarded the University of Bern`s Theodor Prize 2020 in recognition of her groundbreaking work on the importance of natural chemicals in biological interactions. In particular, her work is revolutionizing the understanding of the highly complex chemical interactions between plants, soil pests and beneficial organisms.

Matthias Erb and Andrew Macpherson are among the most citied scientists in the world

Matthias Erb and Andrew Macpherson, along with several other University of Bern researchers, are among the most citied scientists in the world for their respective work on the biology of plant chemistry and immunology. The annual list of `Highly Cited Researchers` includes researchers whose work ranks in the top 1% of cited scientific publications in their respective fields.

Pesticides also damage ecosystems in lake beds

In a study just published in the journal "Environmental Science & Technology", Aurea Chiaia-Hernández and her team have demonstrated the exposure to pesticides in lake sediments - and revealed the ecotoxicological risks posed by these substances in the habitat at the bottom of lakes. The research has proven that using sediments from the Moossee, that a ban on individual pesticides is effective and that their concentration in the environment decreases. However exposure to pesticides that continue to be approved is constantly increasing.

ERC Starting Grant `PRENEMA -interactions between plants and the natural enemies of pests`

Christelle Robert has been awarded a prestigious ERC grant for her PRENEMA (Plant Response to Entomopathogenic NEMAtodes) project, which aims to understand interactions between plants, herbivores and herbivores natural enemies, so-called tritrophic interactions. These are important determinants of ecological processes and crop yields. Interestingly, recent work shows that plants can perceive and respond to the presence predators. PRENEMA combines an interdisciplinary approach with a new exometabolome phenotyping method to explore the mechanisms and specificity of this phenomenon.

"Emerging Investigator Series” of an RSC journal

Adrien Mestrot’s article on mercury mobility and methylmercury formation in contaminated floodplain soils was selected for the Emerging Investigator Series of the journal "Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts.”

Plant chemicals influence herbivore growth by modulating root microbial communities

Plants can change soil microbial communities and thereby affect the health of plants and herbivores. In a collaborative effort within the IRC One Health, researchers now provide a mechanism for this phenomenon by demonstrating that maize roots release bioactive compounds that reprogram soil microbial communities and thereby strengthen the defenses of the next plant generation against the fall armyworm, which currently threatens food security in Africa. This discovery may lead to new opportunities for the improvement of agricultural food chains. How the same natural plant chemicals may affect human health is currently under investigation.

Plant volatiles protect caterpillars against natural enemies

The herbivore induced plant volatile indole renders caterpillars repellent and more resistant to their natural enemies. Scientists from the University of Bern and the University of Neuchâtel discovered that this new aspect of tritrophic interactions may limit efforts to use plant volatiles for biological control. “This study also illustrates how plant metabolites can shape the health of food chains, a concept that we now investigate in more depth in the IRC One Health”, says co-author Matthias Erb.

Soils in Swiss nature reserves contain significant quantities of microplastics

Scientists from the University of Bern found significant amounts of microplastics in soils of Swiss nature reserves. Even many soils in remote, protected mountainous areas were found to be contaminated with microplastics. Moritz Bigalke, senior author of the study and principal investigator in the IRC One Health, emphasizes that “there is a need for research into the question of how microplastics affect food production, and whether they can get into the food chain."

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