Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA; email:
Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA; email:
Annu Rev Microbiol. 2022 Sep 8;76:641-660. doi: 10.1146/annurev-micro-042722-091052. Epub 2022 Jun 9.
Although microbes are routinely grown in monocultures in the laboratory, they are almost never encountered as single species in the wild. Our ability to detect and identify new microorganisms has advanced significantly in recent years, but our understanding of the mechanisms that mediate microbial interactions has lagged behind. What makes this task more challenging is that microbial alliances can be dynamic, consisting of multiple phases. The transitions between phases, and the interactions in general, are often mediated by a chemical language consisting of small molecules, also referred to as secondary metabolites or natural products. In this microbial lexicon, the molecules are like words and through their effects on recipient cells they convey meaning. The current review highlights three dynamic microbial interactions in which some of the words and their meanings have been characterized, especially those that mediate transitions in selected multiphasic associations. These systems provide insights into the principles that govern microbial symbioses and a playbook for interrogating similar associations in diverse ecological niches.
尽管微生物在实验室中通常是在单一培养物中培养的，但在野外它们几乎从未以单一物种的形式出现。近年来，我们检测和识别新微生物的能力有了显著提高，但我们对介导微生物相互作用的机制的理解却落后了。使这项任务更具挑战性的是，微生物联盟可能是动态的，由多个阶段组成。阶段之间的转变以及一般的相互作用通常由一种化学语言介导，这种化学语言由小分子组成，也称为次生代谢物或天然产物。在这个微生物词汇中，这些分子就像单词一样，通过它们对受体细胞的影响来传达意义。本综述重点介绍了三种动态微生物相互作用，其中一些单词及其含义已经被描述出来，特别是那些介导选定多相关联转变的单词。这些系统为理解控制微生物共生关系的原则提供了线索，并为在不同生态位中研究类似的关联提供了方案。
