Department of Chemical Engineering, Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Shantou, Guangdong 515063, China.
Department of Chemical Engineering, Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Shantou, Guangdong 515063, China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Materials and Technologies for Energy Conversion, Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Shantou, Guangdong 515063, China.
Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2022 Aug;76:102754. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2022.102754. Epub 2022 Jul 6.
Microorganisms occupy almost every niche on earth. They play critical roles in maintaining ecological balance, atmospheric C/N cycle, and human health. Microbes live in consortia with metabolite exchange or signal communication. Quantitative and analytical tools are becoming increasingly important to study microbial consortia dynamics. We argue that a combined reductionist and holistic approach will be important to understanding the assembly rules and spatiotemporal population dynamics of the microbial community (MICOM). Reductionism allows us to reconstruct complex MICOM from isolated or simple synthetic consortia. Holism allows us to understand microbes as a community with cooperation and competition. Here we review the recent development of quantitative and analytical tools to uncover the underlying principles in microbial communities that govern their spatiotemporal change and interaction dynamics. Mathematical models and analytical tools will continue to provide essential knowledge and expand our capability to manipulate and control microbial consortia.
微生物几乎占据了地球上的每一个生态位。它们在维持生态平衡、大气 C/N 循环和人类健康方面发挥着关键作用。微生物以代谢物交换或信号通讯的方式共生。定量和分析工具对于研究微生物共生体动力学变得越来越重要。我们认为，综合还原论和整体论方法对于理解微生物群落（MICOM）的组装规则和时空种群动态将是重要的。还原论使我们能够从孤立或简单的合成共生体中重建复杂的 MICOM。整体论使我们能够将微生物理解为一个具有合作和竞争的社区。在这里，我们回顾了定量和分析工具的最新发展，以揭示控制微生物群落时空变化和相互作用动力学的基本原理。数学模型和分析工具将继续提供必要的知识，并扩展我们操纵和控制微生物共生体的能力。
