High-order interactions distort the functional landscape of microbial consortia.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the link between community composition and function is a major challenge in microbial population biology, with implications for the management of natural microbiomes and the design of synthetic consortia. Specifically, it is poorly understood whether community functions can be quantitatively predicted from traits of species in monoculture. Inspired by the study of complex genetic interactions, we have examined how the amylolytic rate of combinatorial assemblages of six starch-degrading soil bacteria depend on the separate functional contributions from each species and their interactions. Filtering our results through the theory of biochemical kinetics, we show that this simple function is additive in the absence of interactions among community members. For about half of the c

SUBMITTER: Sanchez-Gorostiaga A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6932822 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature