Department of Public Health Genomics, Manipal School of Life Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, 576104, India.
Microb Ecol. 2024 Apr 8;87(1):56. doi: 10.1007/s00248-024-02370-7.
Microbial interactions function as a fundamental unit in complex ecosystems. By characterizing the type of interaction (positive, negative, neutral) occurring in these dynamic systems, one can begin to unravel the role played by the microbial species. Towards this, various methods have been developed to decipher the function of the microbial communities. The current review focuses on the various qualitative and quantitative methods that currently exist to study microbial interactions. Qualitative methods such as co-culturing experiments are visualized using microscopy-based techniques and are combined with data obtained from multi-omics technologies (metagenomics, metabolomics, metatranscriptomics). Quantitative methods include the construction of networks and network inference, computational models, and development of synthetic microbial consortia. These methods provide a valuable clue on various roles played by interacting partners, as well as possible solutions to overcome pathogenic microbes that can cause life-threatening infections in susceptible hosts. Studying the microbial interactions will further our understanding of complex less-studied ecosystems and enable design of effective frameworks for treatment of infectious diseases.
微生物相互作用是复杂生态系统的基本功能单元。通过描述这些动态系统中发生的相互作用类型（正相互作用、负相互作用、中性相互作用），可以开始揭示微生物物种所扮演的角色。为此，已经开发了各种方法来破译微生物群落的功能。本综述重点介绍了目前存在的研究微生物相互作用的各种定性和定量方法。定性方法，如共培养实验，使用基于显微镜的技术可视化，并与来自多组学技术（宏基因组学、代谢组学、宏转录组学）获得的数据相结合。定量方法包括网络构建和网络推断、计算模型以及合成微生物联合体的开发。这些方法为相互作用伙伴所扮演的各种角色提供了有价值的线索，以及克服可能导致易感宿主发生危及生命感染的致病微生物的可能解决方案。研究微生物相互作用将增进我们对复杂但研究较少的生态系统的理解，并为治疗传染病设计有效的框架。
