A Synthetic Community System for Probing Microbial Interactions Driven by Exometabolites

Area of Science:

• Microbiology and Ecology
• Systems Biology
• Metabolomics

Background:

• Microbial communities are crucial for ecosystem functions, yet microbial interactions remain poorly understood.
• Investigating these interactions is fundamental to microbiology and ecology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and present a versatile synthetic community system for interrogating exometabolite interactions among microorganisms.
• To enable the study of how microbiome diversity and inter-microbial interactions influence community properties and ecosystem functions.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a filter plate (Transwell) system to physically separate microbial populations while allowing chemical exchange.
• Employed mass spectrometry to assay exometabolites (small molecules, enzymes, antibiotics) from a shared medium reservoir.
• Assessed community member outcomes (growth, productivity, gene regulation) via flow cytometry, biomass measurements, and transcript analysis.

Main Results:

• The system successfully allows for the physical separation of microbial populations while enabling chemical communication.
• Facilitates the coupling of exometabolite profiling with genome mining, transcript analysis, and productivity measurements.
• Demonstrated the system's utility in studying the consequences of microbiome diversity and inter-microbial interactions on emergent community properties and functions.

Conclusions:

• The described synthetic community system is a versatile, scalable, and accessible tool for advancing knowledge of microbial interactions.
• This system has significant potential for research into both natural and artificial microbial ecosystems.
• It can facilitate the discovery of novel natural products produced by microbial consortia.