Artificial selection improves pollutant degradation by bacterial communities.

ABSTRACT: Artificial selection is a promising way to improve microbial community functions, but previous experiments have only shown moderate success. Here, we experimentally evaluate a new method that was inspired by genetic algorithms to artificially select small bacterial communities of known species composition based on their degradation of an industrial pollutant. Starting from 29 randomly generated four-species communities, we repeatedly grew communities for four days, selected the 10 best-degrading communities, and rearranged them into 29 new communities composed of four species of equal ratios whose species compositions resembled those of the most successful communities from the previous round. The best community after 18 such rounds of selection degraded the pollutant better than the best c

SUBMITTER: Arias-Sanchez FI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11380672 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature