This work is published
The mass spectral data for this study are available at MetaboLights (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/metabolights/MTBLS525).
A Synthetic Community System for Probing Microbial Interactions Driven by Exometabolites John L. Chodkowski, Ashley Shade. mSystems Nov 2017, 2 (6) e00129-17; DOI: 10.1128/mSystems.00129-17
Though most microorganisms live within a community, we have modest knowledge about microbial interactions and their implications for community properties and ecosystem functions. To advance understanding of microbial interactions, we describe a straightforward synthetic community system that can be used to interrogate exometabolite interactions among microorganisms. The filter plate system (also known as the Transwell system) physically separates microbial populations, but allows for chemical interactions via a shared medium reservoir. Exometabolites, including small molecules, extracellular enzymes, and antibiotics, are assayed from the reservoir using sensitive mass spectrometry. Community member outcomes, such as growth, productivity, and gene regulation, can be determined using flow cytometry, biomass measurements, and transcript analyses, respectively. The synthetic community design allows for determination of the consequences of microbiome diversity for emergent community properties and for functional changes over time or after perturbation. Because it is versatile, scalable, and accessible, this synthetic community system has the potential to practically advance knowledge of microbial interactions that occur within both natural and artificial communities.
This work was supported by Michigan State University start-up funds to Ashley Shade.This work was supported by the instrumentation at the Michigan State University Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Core Facility and by the computational resources at the Michigan State Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research.