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Sakkos JK, Santos-Merino M, Kokarakis EJ, Li B, Fuentes-Cabrera M, Zuliani P, Ducat DC. Predicting partner fitness based on spatial structuring in a light-driven microbial community. PLoS Comput Biol 2023; 19:e1011045. [PMID: 37134119 PMCID: PMC10184905 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011045] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2022] [Revised: 05/15/2023] [Accepted: 03/22/2023] [Indexed: 05/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Microbial communities have vital roles in systems essential to human health and agriculture, such as gut and soil microbiomes, and there is growing interest in engineering designer consortia for applications in biotechnology (e.g., personalized probiotics, bioproduction of high-value products, biosensing). The capacity to monitor and model metabolite exchange in dynamic microbial consortia can provide foundational information important to understand the community level behaviors that emerge, a requirement for building novel consortia. Where experimental approaches for monitoring metabolic exchange are technologically challenging, computational tools can enable greater access to the fate of both chemicals and microbes within a consortium. In this study, we developed an in-silico model of a synthetic microbial consortia of sucrose-secreting Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 and Escherichia coli W. Our model was built on the NUFEB framework for Individual-based Modeling (IbM) and optimized for biological accuracy using experimental data. We showed that the relative level of sucrose secretion regulates not only the steady-state support for heterotrophic biomass, but also the temporal dynamics of consortia growth. In order to determine the importance of spatial organization within the consortium, we fit a regression model to spatial data and used it to accurately predict colony fitness. We found that some of the critical parameters for fitness prediction were inter-colony distance, initial biomass, induction level, and distance from the center of the simulation volume. We anticipate that the synergy between experimental and computational approaches will improve our ability to design consortia with novel function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan K Sakkos
- Plant Research Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America
| | - María Santos-Merino
- Plant Research Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America
| | - Emmanuel J Kokarakis
- Plant Research Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America
- Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America
| | - Bowen Li
- School of Computing, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - Miguel Fuentes-Cabrera
- Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States of America
| | - Paolo Zuliani
- Dipartimento di Informatica, Università di Roma "La Sapienza", Rome, Italy
| | - Daniel C Ducat
- Plant Research Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America
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Dal Co A, Ackermann M, van Vliet S. Spatial self-organization of metabolism in microbial systems: A matter of enzymes and chemicals. Cell Syst 2023; 14:98-108. [PMID: 36796335 DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2022.12.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2022] [Revised: 08/14/2022] [Accepted: 12/21/2022] [Indexed: 02/17/2023]
Abstract
Most bacteria live in dense, spatially structured communities such as biofilms. The high density allows cells to alter the local microenvironment, whereas the limited mobility can cause species to become spatially organized. Together, these factors can spatially organize metabolic processes within microbial communities so that cells in different locations perform different metabolic reactions. The overall metabolic activity of a community depends both on how metabolic reactions are arranged in space and on how they are coupled, i.e., how cells in different regions exchange metabolites. Here, we review mechanisms that lead to the spatial organization of metabolic processes in microbial systems. We discuss factors that determine the length scales over which metabolic activities are arranged in space and highlight how the spatial organization of metabolic processes affects the ecology and evolution of microbial communities. Finally, we define key open questions that we believe should be the main focus of future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alma Dal Co
- Department of Computational Biology, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Martin Ackermann
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland; Department of Environmental Microbiology, Eawag, 8600 Duebendorf, Switzerland.
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Hitomi K, Weng J, Ying BW. Contribution of the genomic and nutritional differentiation to the spatial distribution of bacterial colonies. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:948657. [PMID: 36081803 PMCID: PMC9448356 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.948657] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2022] [Accepted: 07/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Colony growth is a common phenomenon of structured populations dispersed in nature; nevertheless, studies on the spatial distribution of colonies are largely insufficient. Here, we performed a systematic survey to address the questions of whether and how the spatial distribution of colonies was influenced by the genome and environment. Six Escherichia coli strains carrying either the wild-type or reduced genomes and eight media of varied nutritional richness were used to evaluate the genomic and environmental impacts, respectively. The genome size and nutritional variation contributed to the mean size and total area but not the variation and shape of size distribution of the colonies formed within the identical space and of equivalent spatial density. The spatial analysis by means of the Voronoi diagram found that the Voronoi correlation remained nearly constant in common, in comparison to the Voronoi response decreasing in correlation to genome reduction and nutritional enrichment. Growth analysis at the single colony level revealed positive correlations of the relative growth rate to both the maximal colony size and the Voronoi area, regardless of the genomic and nutritional variety. This result indicated fast growth for the large space assigned and supported homeostasis in the Voronoi correlation. Taken together, the spatial distribution of colonies might benefit efficient clonal growth. Although the mechanisms remain unclear, the findings provide quantitative insights into the genomic and environmental contributions to the growth and distribution of spatially or geographically isolated populations.
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Xing X, Xu H, Wang D, Yang X, Qin H, Zhu B. Nitrogen use aggravates bacterial diversity and network complexity responses to temperature. Sci Rep 2022; 12:13989. [PMID: 35977965 PMCID: PMC9385738 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-15536-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2022] [Accepted: 06/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Rising temperature affects microbial composition and function in agriculture field, especially under nitrogen fertilization. In this study, we investigated the bacterial community of paddy soil incubated at controlled temperatures (5 °C, 15 °C, 25 °C, and 35 °C). Results showed that the response of bacterial communities to temperature was not uniform. Temperature elevation from 15 to 25 °C abruptly shifted the soil bacterial community, whereas elevation from 5 to 15 °C and from 25 to 35 °C had a marginal effect. The bacterial α-diversity was higher at 5 °C and 15 °C, owing to the massively distributed taxa with low abundance. However, as the temperature increased to 25 °C and 35 °C, these taxa were diminished, whereas Firmicutes significantly increased, resulting in a strong decline in α-diversity. Simultaneously, bacterial network complexity significantly increased at 25 °C and 35 °C, indicating the bacteria had closer interactions. Nitrogen application aggravated the variation in bacterial diversity and network complexity among temperatures. Interestingly, most complex network was observed under higher temperatures in fertilized soils. Collectively, these results indicate that nitrogen exacerbates the response of the soil bacterial community to temperature, and association between diversity and network complexity may be present.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoyi Xing
- Urban and Rural Construction College, Shaoyang University, Shaoyang, 422004, China.,Key Laboratory of Agro-Ecological Processes in Subtropical Regions, Taoyuan Agro-Ecosystem Research Station, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha, 410125, China
| | - Huifang Xu
- Research Center on Ecological Sciences, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, China
| | - Dou Wang
- Key Laboratory of Agro-Ecological Processes in Subtropical Regions, Taoyuan Agro-Ecosystem Research Station, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha, 410125, China.,Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Arid Land Crop Science, Agronomy College of Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, 730070, Gansu, China
| | - Xianjun Yang
- Urban and Rural Construction College, Shaoyang University, Shaoyang, 422004, China
| | - Hongling Qin
- Key Laboratory of Agro-Ecological Processes in Subtropical Regions, Taoyuan Agro-Ecosystem Research Station, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha, 410125, China.
| | - Baoli Zhu
- Key Laboratory of Agro-Ecological Processes in Subtropical Regions, Taoyuan Agro-Ecosystem Research Station, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha, 410125, China.
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Xue H, Kurokawa M, Ying BW. Correlation between the spatial distribution and colony size was common for monogenetic bacteria in laboratory conditions. BMC Microbiol 2021; 21:114. [PMID: 33858359 PMCID: PMC8051089 DOI: 10.1186/s12866-021-02180-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2020] [Accepted: 03/22/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Geographically separated population growth of microbes is a common phenomenon in microbial ecology. Colonies are representative of the morphological characteristics of this structured population growth. Pattern formation by single colonies has been intensively studied, whereas the spatial distribution of colonies is poorly investigated. Results The present study describes a first trial to address the questions of whether and how the spatial distribution of colonies determines the final colony size using the model microorganism Escherichia coli, colonies of which can be grown under well-controlled laboratory conditions. A computational tool for image processing was developed to evaluate colony density, colony size and size variation, and the Voronoi diagram was applied for spatial analysis of colonies with identical space resources. A positive correlation between the final colony size and the Voronoi area was commonly identified, independent of genomic and nutritional differences, which disturbed the colony size and size variation. Conclusions This novel finding of a universal correlation between the spatial distribution and colony size not only indicated the fair distribution of spatial resources for monogenetic colonies growing with identical space resources but also indicated that the initial localization of the microbial colonies decided by chance determined the fate of the subsequent population growth. This study provides a valuable example for quantitative analysis of the complex microbial ecosystems by means of experimental ecology. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12866-021-02180-8.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heng Xue
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennoudai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8572, Japan
| | - Masaomi Kurokawa
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennoudai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8572, Japan
| | - Bei-Wen Ying
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennoudai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8572, Japan.
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van Dijk B, Hogeweg P, Doekes HM, Takeuchi N. Slightly beneficial genes are retained by bacteria evolving DNA uptake despite selfish elements. eLife 2020; 9:e56801. [PMID: 32432548 PMCID: PMC7316506 DOI: 10.7554/elife.56801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2020] [Accepted: 05/15/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and gene loss result in rapid changes in the gene content of bacteria. While HGT aids bacteria to adapt to new environments, it also carries risks such as selfish genetic elements (SGEs). Here, we use modelling to study how HGT of slightly beneficial genes impacts growth rates of bacterial populations, and if bacterial collectives can evolve to take up DNA despite selfish elements. We find four classes of slightly beneficial genes: indispensable, enrichable, rescuable, and unrescuable genes. Rescuable genes - genes with small fitness benefits that are lost from the population without HGT - can be collectively retained by a community that engages in costly HGT. While this 'gene-sharing' cannot evolve in well-mixed cultures, it does evolve in a spatial population like a biofilm. Despite enabling infection by harmful SGEs, the uptake of foreign DNA is evolutionarily maintained by the hosts, explaining the coexistence of bacteria and SGEs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bram van Dijk
- Utrecht University, Theoretical BiologyUtrechtNetherlands
| | | | - Hilje M Doekes
- Utrecht University, Theoretical BiologyUtrechtNetherlands
| | - Nobuto Takeuchi
- University of Auckland, Biological SciencesAucklandNew Zealand
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