(719g) A Synthetic Microbial Community Design Based On Syntrophic Metabolite Exchange

A novel synthetic microbial community was designed and built based on biomimicry of key ecological roles found in stable, naturally occurring microbial consortia. The engineered community paradigm exploits the syntrophic ecological relationship found in fermenter-oxidizer community motifs. The synthetic consortia were composed of metabolically engineered Escherichia coli cultures enabling enhanced culture performance as compared to traditional mono-culture techniques. Individual community members were designed for primary-productivity defined here as the ability to assimilate glucose or secondary-heterotrophy which specialized in oxidizing system byproducts. The study demonstrated that synthetic biology enabled division of labor permits simultaneous optimization of multiple tasks which gives rise to new emergent system properties. The benefits of this engineered community system were demonstrated using three relevant culturing systems: batch, chemostat and biofilm where glucose-based biomass productivities increased by ~10, 30 and 50% respectively compared to appropriate monocultures. The synthetic community template was also expanded to consider recombinant bioplastic synthesis in E. coli. The increased culture productivity was an emergent property of the consortial interactions and could not be obtained from monocultures. Additionally, biofilm community cultures showed an example of another emergent property by self assembling into strain specific spatial laminations. The study identified a metabolic engineering archetype which can serve as a biocatalyst platform and be easily adapted for many E. coli based bioprocesses like bioplastic production.