Programming functions within microbial consortia
Abstract
Microbial consortia hold great promise for applications in living materials, bioremediation,antifouling, and therapeutics. Current techniques for designing consortia typically involve 2-15species, far short of the hundreds of bacterial species that make up most naturally occurringconsortia. Communities that are too simple in composition are likely to suffer from a lack ofstability in real-world environments and less robust functional attributes, creating a need for newtechniques for designing highly complex (100+ member) communities and programming them tocarry out biochemical functions of interest.In this proposal, we will develop the foundational tools required to design and build communitiesof 100-200 species that carry out specific biochemical functions and are stable enough to betransplanted into real-world environments. In preliminary work, we have constructed a syntheticgut bacterial community of 119 species and shown that it is unexpectedly stable, both in vitro andin real-world environments. In Objective 1, we will explore the principles that underlie speciescentricprogramming, defining a complete set of parts (strains), using empirical data to build amodel ofhow carbon flows through the community, and creating a framework for constructingcommunities that carry out biochemical pathways ofinterest. In Objective 2, we will studypathway-centric programming by identifying a basis set of biochemical pathways, learning howthe pathway-host relationship dictates robustness and resilience of pathway function, andexploring the principles of endowing a community with a new biochemical function. Collectively,these objectives will make it possible to design and build communities at the 100+ strain scale thatare endowed with biochemical functions and function stably, predictably and robustly in varyingenvironments.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 24, 2024
- Source ID
- N000142412092
Entities
People
- Michael A. Fischbach
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Stanford University
- United States Navy