Combining engineering and evolution to create novel metabolic mutualisms between species.
Synthetic communities can be used as model systems for the molecular examination of species interactions. Manipulating synthetic communities to create novel beneficial interactions provides insight into the mechanisms of cooperation as well as the potential to improve the productivity of industrially relevant systems. Here, we present a general scheme for evolving a mutualism from a bacterial consortium in which one species consumes the by-products of another.
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Lon
L
Chubiz
Sarah
S
Douglas
William
W
Harcombe
D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D005075:Biological Evolution; D053898:Biosynthetic Pathways; D060847:Metabolic Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D008828:Microbiological Techniques / Q000379:methods; D013045:Species Specificity; D013559:Symbiosis; D014161:Transduction, Genetic