Diagnosing and Predicting Mixed-Culture Fermentations with Unicellular and Guild-Based Metabolic Models

Microbiomes are vital to human health, agriculture, and protecting the environment. Predicting behavior of self-assembled or synthetic microbiomes, however, remains a challenge. In this work, we used unicellular and guild-based metabolic models to investigate production of medium-chain fatty acids b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:mSystems 2020-10, Vol.5 (5)
Main Authors: Scarborough, Matthew J., Hamilton, Joshua J., Erb, Elizabeth A., Donohue, Timothy J., Noguera, Daniel R., Rust, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Microbiology
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Summary:Microbiomes are vital to human health, agriculture, and protecting the environment. Predicting behavior of self-assembled or synthetic microbiomes, however, remains a challenge. In this work, we used unicellular and guild-based metabolic models to investigate production of medium-chain fatty acids by a mixed microbial community that is fed multiple organic substrates. Modeling results provided insights into metabolic pathways of three medium-chain fatty acid-producing guilds and identified potential strategies to increase production of medium-chain fatty acids. This work demonstrates the role of metabolic models in augmenting multi-omic studies to gain greater insights into microbiome behavior.
ISSN:2379-5077
2379-5077