Tracking defined microbial communities by multicolor flow cytometry reveals tradeoffs between productivity and diversity.

ABSTRACT: Cross feeding between microbes is ubiquitous, but its impact on the diversity and productivity of microbial communities is incompletely understood. A reductionist approach using simple microbial communities has the potential to detect cross feeding interactions and their impact on ecosystem properties. However, quantifying abundance of more than two microbes in a community in a high throughput fashion requires rapid, inexpensive assays. Here, we show that multicolor flow cytometry combined with a machine learning-based classifier can rapidly quantify species abundances in simple, synthetic microbial communities. Our approach measures community structure over time and detects the exchange of metabolites in a four-member community of fluorescent Bacteroides species. Notably, we quanti

SUBMITTER: Midani FS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9849913 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature