The engineering of TBBPA-degrading synthetic microbiomes with integrated strategies

Abstract The capability to understand and construct synthetic microbiomes is crucial in biotechnological innovation and application. Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) is an emerging pollutant, and the understanding of its biodegradation is very limited. Here, a top-down approach was applied for the enri...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tong Wu, Sheng-Zhi Guo, Yi Zhang, Xi-Ze Zhao, Cong-Guo Ran, Feng-Lan Liu, Run-Hua Wang, De-Feng Li, Hai-Zhen Zhu, Cheng-Ying Jiang, Xi-Hui Shen, Shuang-Jiang Liu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-07-01
Series:npj Biofilms and Microbiomes
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41522-025-00777-9
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849333646630060032
author Tong Wu
Sheng-Zhi Guo
Yi Zhang
Xi-Ze Zhao
Cong-Guo Ran
Feng-Lan Liu
Run-Hua Wang
De-Feng Li
Hai-Zhen Zhu
Cheng-Ying Jiang
Xi-Hui Shen
Shuang-Jiang Liu
author_facet Tong Wu
Sheng-Zhi Guo
Yi Zhang
Xi-Ze Zhao
Cong-Guo Ran
Feng-Lan Liu
Run-Hua Wang
De-Feng Li
Hai-Zhen Zhu
Cheng-Ying Jiang
Xi-Hui Shen
Shuang-Jiang Liu
author_sort Tong Wu
collection DOAJ
description Abstract The capability to understand and construct synthetic microbiomes is crucial in biotechnological innovation and application. Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) is an emerging pollutant, and the understanding of its biodegradation is very limited. Here, a top-down approach was applied for the enrichment of TBBPA-degrading microbiomes from natural microbiomes. Ten keystone taxa correlated to TBBPA degradation and their co-occurrence interactions were identified by the dissection of the degrading microbiomes. Those keystone taxa were targeted and cultivated, and the genomic information was obtained by genome sequencing of strains and metagenomic binning. The keystone bacterial strains showed efficient degradation of TBBPA, and L-amino acids were important co-metabolic substrates to promote the degradation. Guided by this knowledge, a bottom-up approach was applied to design and construct a simplified synthetic consortium SynCon2, that consisted of four strains. The SynCon2 demonstrated efficient TBBPA degradation activity and soil bioremediation. Our study demonstrates the importance of the application of multiple tools in understanding the functions of microbiomes and provides an integrated top-down and bottom-up strategy for the construction of synthetic microbiomes with various applications.
format Article
id doaj-art-7152f5b63ecd4d52adc08040c7b9747d
institution Kabale University
issn 2055-5008
language English
publishDate 2025-07-01
publisher Nature Portfolio
record_format Article
series npj Biofilms and Microbiomes
spelling doaj-art-7152f5b63ecd4d52adc08040c7b9747d2025-08-20T03:45:48ZengNature Portfolionpj Biofilms and Microbiomes2055-50082025-07-0111111210.1038/s41522-025-00777-9The engineering of TBBPA-degrading synthetic microbiomes with integrated strategiesTong Wu0Sheng-Zhi Guo1Yi Zhang2Xi-Ze Zhao3Cong-Guo Ran4Feng-Lan Liu5Run-Hua Wang6De-Feng Li7Hai-Zhen Zhu8Cheng-Ying Jiang9Xi-Hui Shen10Shuang-Jiang Liu11State Key Laboratory of Microbial Diversity and Innovative Utilization, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory for Crop Stress Resistance and High-Efficiency Production, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F UniversityState Key Laboratory of Microbial Diversity and Innovative Utilization, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of Microbial Diversity and Innovative Utilization, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of Microbial Diversity and Innovative Utilization, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of Microbial Diversity and Innovative Utilization, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of Microbial Diversity and Innovative Utilization, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of Microbial Diversity and Innovative Utilization, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of Microbial Diversity and Innovative Utilization, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of Microbial Diversity and Innovative Utilization, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory for Crop Stress Resistance and High-Efficiency Production, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F UniversityState Key Laboratory of Microbial Diversity and Innovative Utilization, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of SciencesAbstract The capability to understand and construct synthetic microbiomes is crucial in biotechnological innovation and application. Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) is an emerging pollutant, and the understanding of its biodegradation is very limited. Here, a top-down approach was applied for the enrichment of TBBPA-degrading microbiomes from natural microbiomes. Ten keystone taxa correlated to TBBPA degradation and their co-occurrence interactions were identified by the dissection of the degrading microbiomes. Those keystone taxa were targeted and cultivated, and the genomic information was obtained by genome sequencing of strains and metagenomic binning. The keystone bacterial strains showed efficient degradation of TBBPA, and L-amino acids were important co-metabolic substrates to promote the degradation. Guided by this knowledge, a bottom-up approach was applied to design and construct a simplified synthetic consortium SynCon2, that consisted of four strains. The SynCon2 demonstrated efficient TBBPA degradation activity and soil bioremediation. Our study demonstrates the importance of the application of multiple tools in understanding the functions of microbiomes and provides an integrated top-down and bottom-up strategy for the construction of synthetic microbiomes with various applications.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41522-025-00777-9
spellingShingle Tong Wu
Sheng-Zhi Guo
Yi Zhang
Xi-Ze Zhao
Cong-Guo Ran
Feng-Lan Liu
Run-Hua Wang
De-Feng Li
Hai-Zhen Zhu
Cheng-Ying Jiang
Xi-Hui Shen
Shuang-Jiang Liu
The engineering of TBBPA-degrading synthetic microbiomes with integrated strategies
npj Biofilms and Microbiomes
title The engineering of TBBPA-degrading synthetic microbiomes with integrated strategies
title_full The engineering of TBBPA-degrading synthetic microbiomes with integrated strategies
title_fullStr The engineering of TBBPA-degrading synthetic microbiomes with integrated strategies
title_full_unstemmed The engineering of TBBPA-degrading synthetic microbiomes with integrated strategies
title_short The engineering of TBBPA-degrading synthetic microbiomes with integrated strategies
title_sort engineering of tbbpa degrading synthetic microbiomes with integrated strategies
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41522-025-00777-9
work_keys_str_mv AT tongwu theengineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT shengzhiguo theengineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT yizhang theengineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT xizezhao theengineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT congguoran theengineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT fenglanliu theengineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT runhuawang theengineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT defengli theengineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT haizhenzhu theengineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT chengyingjiang theengineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT xihuishen theengineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT shuangjiangliu theengineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT tongwu engineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT shengzhiguo engineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT yizhang engineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT xizezhao engineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT congguoran engineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT fenglanliu engineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT runhuawang engineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT defengli engineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT haizhenzhu engineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT chengyingjiang engineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT xihuishen engineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies
AT shuangjiangliu engineeringoftbbpadegradingsyntheticmicrobiomeswithintegratedstrategies