Disentangling microbial interaction networks

The structure and function of microbial communities is shaped by intricate ecological interactions amongst the constituent microorganisms. Thus, a mechanistic understanding of emergent community-level functions requires knowledge on how the architecture of the underlying interaction networks affects these properties. To address this, researchers employ different sequencing-based and experimental approaches to infer the topology of a given network. However, it remains generally unclear which method is best suited for quantifying critical network parameters. Here we provide a comparative overview of different approaches serving this purpose, with particular emphasis on their strengths and weaknesses. In this way, our work can help to guide the design of studies that aim at unraveling structure-function relationships in microbial communities.