Deciphering microbial interactions in synthetic human gut microbiome communities

Abstract The ecological forces that govern the assembly and stability of the human gut microbiota remain unresolved. We developed a generalizable model‐guided framework to predict higher‐dimensional consortia from time‐resolved measurements of lower‐order assemblages. This method was employed to dec...

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Main Authors: Ophelia S Venturelli, Alex V Carr, Garth Fisher, Ryan H Hsu, Rebecca Lau, Benjamin P Bowen, Susan Hromada, Trent Northen, Adam P Arkin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Springer Nature 2018-06-01
Series:Molecular Systems Biology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.15252/msb.20178157
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author Ophelia S Venturelli
Alex V Carr
Garth Fisher
Ryan H Hsu
Rebecca Lau
Benjamin P Bowen
Susan Hromada
Trent Northen
Adam P Arkin
author_facet Ophelia S Venturelli
Alex V Carr
Garth Fisher
Ryan H Hsu
Rebecca Lau
Benjamin P Bowen
Susan Hromada
Trent Northen
Adam P Arkin
author_sort Ophelia S Venturelli
collection DOAJ
description Abstract The ecological forces that govern the assembly and stability of the human gut microbiota remain unresolved. We developed a generalizable model‐guided framework to predict higher‐dimensional consortia from time‐resolved measurements of lower‐order assemblages. This method was employed to decipher microbial interactions in a diverse human gut microbiome synthetic community. We show that pairwise interactions are major drivers of multi‐species community dynamics, as opposed to higher‐order interactions. The inferred ecological network exhibits a high proportion of negative and frequent positive interactions. Ecological drivers and responsive recipient species were discovered in the network. Our model demonstrated that a prevalent positive and negative interaction topology enables robust coexistence by implementing a negative feedback loop that balances disparities in monospecies fitness levels. We show that negative interactions could generate history‐dependent responses of initial species proportions that frequently do not originate from bistability. Measurements of extracellular metabolites illuminated the metabolic capabilities of monospecies and potential molecular basis of microbial interactions. In sum, these methods defined the ecological roles of major human‐associated intestinal species and illuminated design principles of microbial communities.
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spelling doaj-art-fabdf0a218ed497ea221a1d5902aab2f2025-08-20T03:06:29ZengSpringer NatureMolecular Systems Biology1744-42922018-06-0114611910.15252/msb.20178157Deciphering microbial interactions in synthetic human gut microbiome communitiesOphelia S Venturelli0Alex V Carr1Garth Fisher2Ryan H Hsu3Rebecca Lau4Benjamin P Bowen5Susan Hromada6Trent Northen7Adam P Arkin8Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin‐MadisonEnvironmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryEnvironmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryCalifornia Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, University of California BerkeleyEnvironmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryEnvironmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryDepartment of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin‐MadisonEnvironmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryEnvironmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryAbstract The ecological forces that govern the assembly and stability of the human gut microbiota remain unresolved. We developed a generalizable model‐guided framework to predict higher‐dimensional consortia from time‐resolved measurements of lower‐order assemblages. This method was employed to decipher microbial interactions in a diverse human gut microbiome synthetic community. We show that pairwise interactions are major drivers of multi‐species community dynamics, as opposed to higher‐order interactions. The inferred ecological network exhibits a high proportion of negative and frequent positive interactions. Ecological drivers and responsive recipient species were discovered in the network. Our model demonstrated that a prevalent positive and negative interaction topology enables robust coexistence by implementing a negative feedback loop that balances disparities in monospecies fitness levels. We show that negative interactions could generate history‐dependent responses of initial species proportions that frequently do not originate from bistability. Measurements of extracellular metabolites illuminated the metabolic capabilities of monospecies and potential molecular basis of microbial interactions. In sum, these methods defined the ecological roles of major human‐associated intestinal species and illuminated design principles of microbial communities.https://doi.org/10.15252/msb.20178157ecologyhuman gut microbiomemathematical modelingmicrobial communitymicrobial interaction
spellingShingle Ophelia S Venturelli
Alex V Carr
Garth Fisher
Ryan H Hsu
Rebecca Lau
Benjamin P Bowen
Susan Hromada
Trent Northen
Adam P Arkin
Deciphering microbial interactions in synthetic human gut microbiome communities
Molecular Systems Biology
ecology
human gut microbiome
mathematical modeling
microbial community
microbial interaction
title Deciphering microbial interactions in synthetic human gut microbiome communities
title_full Deciphering microbial interactions in synthetic human gut microbiome communities
title_fullStr Deciphering microbial interactions in synthetic human gut microbiome communities
title_full_unstemmed Deciphering microbial interactions in synthetic human gut microbiome communities
title_short Deciphering microbial interactions in synthetic human gut microbiome communities
title_sort deciphering microbial interactions in synthetic human gut microbiome communities
topic ecology
human gut microbiome
mathematical modeling
microbial community
microbial interaction
url https://doi.org/10.15252/msb.20178157
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