Collaborative Research: Mechanisms of community coalescence in synthetic microbiomes

合作研究：合成微生物组中群落合并的机制

• 批准号: 2328528
• 负责人: Angela Oliverio
• 金额: $ 67.29万
• 依托单位: Syracuse University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-03-01 至 2027-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2328528&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Mechanisms; community; coalescence

Distinct microbiomes are often mixed in natural and engineered systems. For example, terrestrial and aquatic microbiomes mix in rivers, soil microbial communities invade one another in agriculture, and human skin microbiomes come into contact when two people shake hands. Such cross-microbiome invasions are collectively termed community coalescence. How these mixing events impact the function of microbiomes and how often new communities with novel functions form as a result remains unclear. This research project uses fermented food microbiomes, including sourdough starters, kombucha, and fermented vegetables, to determine how microbiomes reassemble when they mix and how coalescence impacts microbiome functions. Findings from these experimentally tractable fermented food systems identify how community coalescence can be used as a tool for microbiome engineering and its potential to improve the manipulation of medically and industrially relevant microbiomes. The broad appeal of fermented food systems is also used to increase participation in undergraduate research and broaden the public understanding of microbiomes. This project also engages the public more broadly through popular science articles and interviews on MicrobialFoods.org, a popular science venue developed to explain complex biological concepts in scientific papers in accessible content for food enthusiasts and educators.The mechanisms that govern cross-community invasions remain poorly understood. Most research has focused on the consequences of community coalescence in natural systems, while determination of underlying mechanisms is limited. This project manipulates a suite of fermented food model systems, derived from fermented food microbiomes, including sourdough starters, kombucha, and fermented vegetables, in conducting community coalescence experiments. The investigation sheds light on the consequences of coalescence, the mechanisms that govern it, and its potential utility for microbiome engineering. With the use of co-culture interaction assays, metabolic modeling, RNA-sequencing, and targeted metabolomics the project dissects the underlying interaction mechanisms that shape coalescence outcomes. Experimental evolution is used to determine how abiotic and biotic adaptation constrains or promotes cross-invasion outcomes. This project provides a mechanistic understanding that is required for predicting coalescence consequences and for leveraging community coalescence in industrial applications with microbial communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

自然和工程系统通常混合不同的微生物组。例如，陆生和水生微生物组混合在河流中，土壤微生物群落在农业中互相入侵，当两个人握手时，人类皮肤微生物组就会接触。这种跨微生物组的入侵集体被称为社区结合。这些混合事件如何影响微生物组的功能以及新型新社区具有新功能的频率，因此尚不清楚。该研究项目使用发酵食品微生物组，包括酸面团起动器，康普茶和发酵蔬菜，以确定微生物组混合时如何重新组装，以及聚结对微生物组功能的影响。这些实验性的发酵食品系统的发现，如何将社区结合用作微生物组工程的工具及其改善对医学和工业相关的微生物组的操纵的潜力。发酵食品系统的广泛吸引力也用于增加对本科研究的参与，并扩大对微生物组的公众理解。该项目还通过流行的科学文章和Microbialfoods.org的访谈更广泛地参与公众，这是一个流行的科学场所，旨在解释食品爱好者和教育工作者的可访问内容的科学论文中复杂的生物学概念。管理交叉社区入侵的机制仍然不足以理解。大多数研究都集中在自然系统中社区结合的后果上，而基本机制的确定是有限的。该项目操纵了一套发酵食品模型系统，这些系统源自发酵食品微生物组，包括酸面团起动器，康普茶和发酵蔬菜，用于进行社区结合实验。该调查阐明了聚结的后果，控制效果的机制以及其对微生物组工程的潜在效用。通过使用共培养相互作用测定，代谢建模，RNA测序和靶向代谢组学，该项目剖析了塑造合并结果的基本相互作用机制。实验进化用于确定非生物和生物适应如何限制或促进交叉染色结果。该项目提供了一种机械理解，这是预测与微生物社区的工业应用中利用社区合并的必要条件。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的审查标准通过评估来进行评估的。