(110d) Assaying for Realized Niche Expansion in Stressed Environments with Synthetic Microbial Communities

Microbial communities carry out complex and essential functions in nature leveraging strategies such as division of labor and functional redundancy. It has been proposed that synthetically designed microbial communities (SynComs) could offer similar advantages in biotechnological applications. To realize this potential, though, the next generation of SynCom approaches ought to incorporate a broader genetic diversity and identify environments where communities are specifically suited compared to monoculture. Borrowing from approaches in ecology, here we used paired synthetic microbial communities of genetically diverse isolates taken from a field site with acid and metal contamination to identify advantageous SynComs. By assaying under stressed and non-stressed conditions, we identify microbes with the potential to expand the realized niche (survivable environment) of partner microbes. Such findings have relevance for the construction of SynComs robust to toxic environments with possible applications in remediation and waste upgrading.