Communication and Collaboration in Synthetic Microbial Consortia

Abstract

Elucidating and manipulating community-level behaviors of microorganisms holds tremendous potential for human health, biotechnology and bioprocessing. Robust, flexible cell-cell communication pathways are essential for controlling interactions and building synergies between different species of microorganism in synthetic microbial communities. To this end, we have developed new sets regulatory components and systems that can be used to turn gene expression on or off in response to a cell-cell communication signal, and enable interspecies communication between representative Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) and Gram-positive (Bacillus megaterium) organisms. An acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL)-dependent system was adapted to send signals from B. megaterium to E. coli. Components of a peptide-dependent microbial signaling pathway were used to send signals from E. coli to B. megaterium. The peptide-based communication elements have also been used to engineer an autoinduction system that enables density-dependent gene expression in B. megaterium. Finally, these new cell-cell communication systems are being used in concert with other ecological approaches to coordinate the growth, manipulate interactions and distribute functions between microbes.