Spatially structured microbial consortia and their role in food fermentations

Michielsen, Sabine; Vercelli, Gabriel T; Cordero, Otto X; Bachmann, Herwig

doi:10.1016/j.copbio.2024.103102

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 59 publications

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“…in terms of species diversity and interactions) can help understand the mechanisms that link diversity and function (Sun and Sanchez, 2023). For instance, low-diversity microbial consortia (like those used for biofuels and food production or microbiome-based synthetic communities) have been used to test ecological hypotheses and propose generalizable ecological theories since they offer controlled environments and easily measurable functions (Stenuit and Agathos, 2015;Cairns et al, 2018;Michielsen et al, 2024). Ecological mechanisms that have been shown to be important to the assembly of microbial communities can be deterministic (like species interactions and niche differentiation) or stochastic (such as birth-rate drift) (Yuan et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Levels of microbial diversity affect the stability and function of dark fermentation bioreactors

Navarro-Díaz,

Aparicio-Trejo,

Valdez-Vazquez

et al. 2024

Front. Ind. Microbiol.

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Climate change and pollution drive the need for fossil fuel alternatives. Dark fermentation offers promise through the use of microbial consortia to convert organic matter into hydrogen gas. Persisting challenges like instability and low yields may stem from reduced diversity of the anaerobic digestion communities that serve as inoculum and undergo aggressive pretreatments and culturing conditions. This study explores the impact of diversity loss on function, focusing on biogas production and stability. Two treatments, with and without aggressive pretreatment, were tested on 12 replicate bioreactors each, resulting in differing microbial diversity levels. Microbial communities were assessed via 16S amplicon sequencing, monitoring biogas production, volatile fatty acids, and testing invasion susceptibility. The two treatments exhibited divergent assembly and functional trajectories, although replicates within each treatment ultimately converged into similar compositions and stable levels of biogas production. Heat-treated bioreactors showed a 91.5% biogas increase but exhibited higher invasion susceptibility compared to non-treated. Non-treated bioreactors showed unique species associations with biogas production (e.g. Ethanoligenens harbinense and Enterococcus olivae), distinct from the commonly studied Clostridium group. These findings provide insights into the effects of diversity loss on stability, elucidating differences across taxonomic and functional stability as well as invasion susceptibility. Moreover, the identification of novel bacterial groups associated with hydrogen production suggests promising directions for future research to enhance microbial consortia control and design in dark fermentation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Levels of microbial diversity affect the stability and function of dark fermentation bioreactors

Navarro-Díaz,

Aparicio-Trejo,

Valdez-Vazquez

et al. 2024

Front. Ind. Microbiol.

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High-throughput ecological interaction mapping of dairy microorganisms

Ndiaye,

Coulombe,

Fliss

et al. 2025

International Journal of Food Microbiology

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Engineering Microbial Consortia as Living Materials: Advances and Prospectives

Wang,

Zhan,

Jiang

et al. 2024

ACS Synth. Biol.

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The field of Engineered Living Materials (ELMs) integrates engineered living organisms into natural biomaterials to achieve diverse objectives. Multiorganism consortia, prevalent in both naturally occurring and synthetic microbial cultures, exhibit complex functionalities and interrelationships, extending the scope of what can be achieved with individual engineered bacterial strains. However, the ELMs comprising microbial consortia are still in the developmental stage. In this Review, we introduce two strategies for designing ELMs constituted of microbial consortia: a top-down strategy, which involves characterizing microbial interactions and mimicking and reconstructing natural ecosystems, and a bottom-up strategy, which entails the rational design of synthetic consortia and their assembly with material substrates to achieve user-defined functions. Next, we summarize technologies from synthetic biology that facilitate the efficient engineering of microbial consortia for performing tasks more complex than those that can be done with single bacterial strains. Finally, we discuss essential challenges and future perspectives for microbial consortia-based ELMs.

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Spatially structured microbial consortia and their role in food fermentations

Cited by 3 publications

References 59 publications

Levels of microbial diversity affect the stability and function of dark fermentation bioreactors

Levels of microbial diversity affect the stability and function of dark fermentation bioreactors

High-throughput ecological interaction mapping of dairy microorganisms

Engineering Microbial Consortia as Living Materials: Advances and Prospectives

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