1
|
Smith TP, Clegg T, Ransome E, Martin-Lilley T, Rosindell J, Woodward G, Pawar S, Bell T. High-throughput characterization of bacterial responses to complex mixtures of chemical pollutants. Nat Microbiol 2024; 9:938-948. [PMID: 38499812 PMCID: PMC10994839 DOI: 10.1038/s41564-024-01626-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2023] [Accepted: 01/30/2024] [Indexed: 03/20/2024]
Abstract
Our understanding of how microbes respond to micropollutants, such as pesticides, is almost wholly based on single-species responses to individual chemicals. However, in natural environments, microbes experience multiple pollutants simultaneously. Here we perform a matrix of multi-stressor experiments by assaying the growth of model and non-model strains of bacteria in all 255 combinations of 8 chemical stressors (antibiotics, herbicides, fungicides and pesticides). We found that bacterial strains responded in different ways to stressor mixtures, which could not be predicted simply from their phylogenetic relatedness. Increasingly complex chemical mixtures were both more likely to negatively impact bacterial growth in monoculture and more likely to reveal net interactive effects. A mixed co-culture of strains proved more resilient to increasingly complex mixtures and revealed fewer interactions in the growth response. These results show predictability in microbial population responses to chemical stressors and could increase the utility of next-generation eco-toxicological assays.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Thomas P Smith
- The Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Silwood Park Campus, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK.
| | - Tom Clegg
- The Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Silwood Park Campus, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Emma Ransome
- The Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Silwood Park Campus, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Thomas Martin-Lilley
- The Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Silwood Park Campus, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - James Rosindell
- The Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Silwood Park Campus, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Guy Woodward
- The Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Silwood Park Campus, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Samraat Pawar
- The Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Silwood Park Campus, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Thomas Bell
- The Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Silwood Park Campus, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| |
Collapse
|