Project description:Synthetic microbial consortia represent a new frontier for synthetic biology given that they can solve more complex problems than monocultures. However, most attempts to co-cultivate these artificial communities fail because of the ‘‘winner-takes-all’’ in nutrients competition. In soil, multiple species can coexist with a spatial organization. Inspired by nature, here we show that an engineered spatial segregation method can assemble stable consortia with both flexibility and precision. We create microbial swarmbot consortia (MSBC) by encapsulating subpopulations with polymeric microcapsules. The crosslinked structure of microcapsules fences microbes, but allows the transport of small molecules and proteins. MSBC method enables the assembly of various synthetic communities and the precise control over the subpopulations. These capabilities can readily modulate the division of labor and communication. Our work integrates the synthetic biology and material science to offer new insights into consortia assembly and server as foundation to diverse applications from biomanufacturing to engineered photosynthesis.
Project description:Microbial autotroph-heterotroph interactions influence biogeochemical cycles on a global scale, but the diversity and complexity of natural systems and their intractability to in situ manipulation make it challenging to elucidate the principles governing these interactions. The study of assembling phototrophic biofilm communities provides a robust means to identify such interactions and evaluate their contributions to the recruitment and maintenance of phylogenetic and functional diversity overtime. To examine primary succession in phototrophic communities, we isolated two unicyanobacterial consortia from the microbial mat in HotLake, Washington, characterizing the membership and metabolic function of each consortium. We then analyzed the spatial structures and quantified the community compositions of their assembling biofilms. The consortia retained the same suite of heterotrophic species, identified as abundant members of the mat and assigned to Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes. Autotroph growth rates dominated early in assembly, yielding to increasing heterotroph growth rates late in succession. The two consortia exhibited similar assembly patterns, with increasing relative abundances of members from Bacteroidetes and Alphaproteobacteria concurrent with decreasing relative abundances of those from Gamma proteobacteria. Despite these similarities at higher taxonomic levels, the relative abundances of individual heterotrophic species were substantially different in the developing consortial biofilms. This suggests that, although similar niches are created by the cyanobacterial metabolisms, the resulting webs of autotroph-heterotroph and heterotroph-heterotroph interactions are specific to each primary producer. The relative simplicity and tractability of the Hot Lake unicyanobacterial consortia make them useful model systems for deciphering interspecies interactions and assembly principles relevant to natural microbial communities.
Project description:Microbial consortia consist of a multitude of prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms. Their interaction is critical for the functioning of ecosystems. Until now, there is limited knowledge about the communication signals determining the interaction between bacteria and fungi and how they influence microbial consortia. Here, we discovered that bacterial low molecular weight arginine-derived polyketides trigger the production of distinct natural products in fungi. These compounds are produced by actinomycetes found on all continents except Antarctica and are characterized by an arginine-derived positively charged group linked to a linear or cyclic polyene moiety. Producer bacteria can be readily isolated from soil as well as fungi that decode the signal and respond with the biosynthesis of natural products. Both arginine-derived polyketides and the compounds produced by fungi in response shape microbial interactions.
2023-06-16 | PXD033242 | Pride
Project description:Pink berry metagenomes 2018
| PRJNA907316 | ENA
Project description:EMG produced TPA metagenomics assembly of PRJNA214436 data set (Pink berry consortia Metagenome).