Title:Model Microbial Consortia as Tools for Understanding Complex Microbial Communities
VOLUME: 19 ISSUE: 8
Author(s):Shin Haruta* and Kyosuke Yamamoto
Affiliation:Department of Biological Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tokyo, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Sapporo, Hokkaido
Keywords:Microbial consortia, Ecosystems, Multi-omics, Interspecies interactions, Complex systems, Microbiome, Microbial
ecology.
Abstract:A major biological challenge in the postgenomic era has been untangling the composition
and functions of microbes that inhabit complex communities or microbiomes. Multi-omics and modern
bioinformatics have provided the tools to assay molecules across different cellular and community
scales; however, mechanistic knowledge over microbial interactions often remains elusive. This is due
to the immense diversity and the essentially undiminished volume of not-yet-cultured microbes. Simplified
model communities hold some promise in enabling researchers to manage complexity so that
they can mechanistically understand the emergent properties of microbial community interactions. In
this review, we surveyed several approaches that have effectively used tractable model consortia to
elucidate the complex behavior of microbial communities. We go further to provide some perspectives
on the limitations and new opportunities with these approaches and highlight where these efforts are
likely to lead as advances are made in molecular ecology and systems biology.
