Optogenetic spatial patterning of cooperation in yeast populations

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Synthetic Biology
• Biotechnology

Background:

• Microbial communities exhibit complex metabolic interactions, including cooperation and competition.
• Controlling these interactions is key for engineering microbial consortia.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the use of optogenetics for controlling metabolic interactions in yeast.
• To engineer spatial assortment of cooperator and cheater cells using light.

Main Methods:

• Utilized optogenetics to control SUC2 invertase production in yeast.
• Manipulated blue light illumination to switch yeast cells between cooperator and cheater phenotypes.
• Analyzed the impact of domain size on cooperator benefits and resource competition.

Main Results:

• Yeast cells acted as cooperators (producing hexose) under blue light and cheaters (consuming hexose) in the dark.
• Cooperators achieved optimal benefit from produced hexoses within specific domain size constraints.
• The system demonstrated bandpass filter behavior, with limits defined by cheater and cooperator competition for resources.

Conclusions:

• Optogenetic control of SUC2 invertase production effectively shapes metabolic interactions and spatial organization in yeast.
• The engineered system offers a tunable platform for managing cooperation and competition in microbial consortia.
• This approach has potential applications in diverse microbial ecosystems and synthetic biology.