Assembling stable syntrophic Escherichia coli communities by comprehensively identifying beneficiaries of secreted goods.

ABSTRACT: Metabolic cross-feeding frequently underlies mutualistic relationships in natural microbial communities and is often exploited to assemble synthetic microbial consortia. We systematically identified all single-gene knockouts suitable for imposing cross-feeding in Escherichia coli and used this information to assemble syntrophic communities. Most strains benefiting from shared goods were dysfunctional in biosynthesis of amino acids, nucleotides, and vitamins or mutants in central carbon metabolism. We tested cross-feeding potency in 1,444 strain pairs and mapped the interaction network between all functional groups of mutants. This network revealed that auxotrophs for vitamins are optimal cooperators. Lastly, we monitored how assemblies composed of dozens of auxotrophs change over time and

SUBMITTER: Noto Guillen M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8602757 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature