Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 112, Issue 50, Pages 15450-15455Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1506034112
Keywords
microbial communities; microbiome; interspecies interactions; methanogens; metabolic modeling
Categories
Funding
- UCSD Neuroscience Microscopy Shared Facility Grant [P30 N5047101]
- US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Office of Biological & Environmental Research [DE-SC0004485, DE-SC0004917]
- Office of Science of the US DOE [DE-AC02-05CH11231.380]
- U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) [DE-SC0004917] Funding Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Microorganisms form diverse communities that have a profound impact on the environment and human health. Recent technological advances have enabled elucidation of community diversity at high resolution. Investigation of microbial communities has revealed that they often contain multiple members with complementing and seemingly redundant metabolic capabilities. An understanding of the communal impacts of redundant metabolic capabilities is currently lacking; specifically, it is not known whether metabolic redundancy will foster competition or motivate cooperation. By investigating methanogenic populations, we identified the multidimensional interspecies interactions that define composition and dynamics within syntrophic communities that play a key role in the global carbon cycle. Species-specific genomes were extracted from metagenomic data using differential coverage binning. We used metabolic modeling leveraging metatranscriptomic information to reveal and quantify a complex intertwined system of syntrophic relationships. Our results show that amino acid auxotrophies create additional interdependencies that define community composition and control carbon and energy flux through the system while simultaneously contributing to overall community robustness. Strategic use of antimicrobials further reinforces this intricate interspecies network. Collectively, our study reveals the multidimensional interactions in syntrophic communities that promote high species richness and bolster community stability during environmental perturbations.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available