Higher-order interactions and emergent properties of microbial communities: The power of synthetic ecology.

ABSTRACT: Humans have long relied on microbial communities to create products, produce energy, and treat waste. The microbiota residing within our bodies directly impacts our health, while the soil and rhizosphere microbiomes influence the productivity of our crops. However, the complexity and diversity of microbial communities make them challenging to study and difficult to develop into applications, as they often exhibit the emergence of unpredictable higher-order phenomena. Synthetic ecology aims at simplifying complexity by constituting synthetic or semi-natural microbial communities with reduced diversity that become easier to study and analyze. This strategy combines methodologies that simplify existing complex systems (top-down approach) or build the system from its constituent components (bo

SUBMITTER: Gallardo-Navarro O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11315108 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature