TY - JOUR T1 - Emergent Biosynthetic Capacity in Simple Microbial Communities A1 - Chiu, Hsuan-Chao A1 - Levy, Roie A1 - Borenstein, Elhanan Y1 - 2014/07/03 N2 - Author Summary Microbes constantly change their environment, consuming some compounds from their surroundings and secreting others. This microbial activity plays a crucial role in many important environmental cycles, ultimately making all life possible. These processes, however, are often not accomplished by a single species but rather by a diverse community of interacting microorganisms. Characterizing these interactions and their impact is essential not only for understanding global ecosystem metabolism, but also for uncovering the tremendous potential of microbial communities in industrial, environmental, and clinical applications. In this paper, we present a computational framework for modeling, exploring, and tracking such enhanced metabolic capacities in simple two-species communities. We demonstrate that emergent biosynthetic capacity – the ability of multiple species growing together to produce and secrete metabolites that none of the member species secretes when growing alone – is common, and identify typical reprogramming mechanisms and temporal patterns that underlie this capacity. Importantly, we show that emergent capacity is most likely when the species comprising the community are neither too functionally similar nor too distant. Overall, our findings lay the foundation for a comprehensive and predictive understanding of synergistic microbial activity and highlight promising routes for designing, engineering, and manipulating microbial communities toward desired metabolic capabilities. JF - PLOS Computational Biology JA - PLOS Computational Biology VL - 10 IS - 7 UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003695 SP - e1003695 EP - PB - Public Library of Science M3 - doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003695 ER -