Metabolic complexity drives divergence in microbial communities

Silverstein, Michael R.; Bhatnagar, Jennifer M.; Segrè, Daniel

doi:10.1038/s41559-024-02440-6

Metabolic complexity drives divergence in microbial communities

Journal Article · Mon Jul 01 20:00:00 EDT 2024 · Nature Ecology and Evolution

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02440-6· OSTI ID:2570204

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Boston Univ., MA (United States)

Microbial communities are shaped by environmental metabolites, but the principles that govern whether different communities will converge or diverge in any given condition remain unknown, posing fundamental questions about the feasibility of microbiome engineering. Here, in this work, we studied the longitudinal assembly dynamics of a set of natural microbial communities grown in laboratory conditions of increasing metabolic complexity. We found that different microbial communities tend to become similar to each other when grown in metabolically simple conditions, but they diverge in composition as the metabolic complexity of the environment increases, a phenomenon we refer to as the divergence-complexity effect. A comparative analysis of these communities revealed that this divergence is driven by community diversity and by the assortment of specialist taxa capable of degrading complex metabolites. An ecological model of community dynamics indicates that the hierarchical structure of metabolism itself, where complex molecules are enzymatically degraded into progressively simpler ones that then participate in cross-feeding between community members, is necessary and sufficient to recapitulate our experimental observations. In addition to helping understand the role of the environment in community assembly, the divergence-complexity effect can provide insight into which environments support multiple community states, enabling the search for desired ecosystem functions towards microbiome engineering applications.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Boston Univ., MA (United States); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0020403; SC0012704; AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 2570204

Journal Information:: Nature Ecology and Evolution, Journal Name: Nature Ecology and Evolution Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 8; ISSN 2397-334X

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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