IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v11y2020i1d10.1038_s41467-020-17612-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Synthetic microbial communities of heterotrophs and phototrophs facilitate sustainable growth

Author

Listed:
  • Cristal Zuñiga

    (University of California)

  • Tingting Li

    (The Johns Hopkins University
    Lanzhou University)

  • Michael T. Guarnieri

    (National Bioenergy Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

  • Jackson P. Jenkins

    (The Johns Hopkins University)

  • Chien-Ting Li

    (The Johns Hopkins University)

  • Kerem Bingol

    (Earth and Biological Sciences Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

  • Young-Mo Kim

    (Earth and Biological Sciences Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

  • Michael J. Betenbaugh

    (The Johns Hopkins University)

  • Karsten Zengler

    (University of California
    University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive
    University of California)

Abstract

Microbial communities comprised of phototrophs and heterotrophs hold great promise for sustainable biotechnology. Successful application of these communities relies on the selection of appropriate partners. Here we construct four community metabolic models to guide strain selection, pairing phototrophic, sucrose-secreting Synechococcus elongatus with heterotrophic Escherichia coli K-12, Escherichia coli W, Yarrowia lipolytica, or Bacillus subtilis. Model simulations reveae metabolic exchanges that sustain the heterotrophs in minimal media devoid of any organic carbon source, pointing to S. elongatus-E. coli K-12 as the most active community. Experimental validation of flux predictions for this pair confirms metabolic interactions and potential production capabilities. Synthetic communities bypass member-specific metabolic bottlenecks (e.g. histidine- and transport-related reactions) and compensate for lethal genetic traits, achieving up to 27% recovery from lethal knockouts. The study provides a robust modelling framework for the rational design of synthetic communities with optimized growth sustainability using phototrophic partners.

Suggested Citation

  • Cristal Zuñiga & Tingting Li & Michael T. Guarnieri & Jackson P. Jenkins & Chien-Ting Li & Kerem Bingol & Young-Mo Kim & Michael J. Betenbaugh & Karsten Zengler, 2020. "Synthetic microbial communities of heterotrophs and phototrophs facilitate sustainable growth," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-17612-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17612-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17612-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-020-17612-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-17612-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.