Scientists predict microbe teamwork using B12-like nutrients alone
Alvarez-Aponte ZI, Anagu HI, Mok KC, Nguyen ST, Trotter VV
Soil Health
The soil in your garden beds is packed with invisible microbial neighborhoods negotiating nutrients the same way these lab bacteria do, and understanding those trades is a step toward figuring out what actually makes soil healthy.
Researchers studied four types of soil bacteria and a nutrient related to vitamin B12 that some microbes make and others need to borrow. By simply watching how each bacteria grew alone at different nutrient levels, the team could predict exactly which bacteria would thrive when grown together, and the nutrient producers turned out to be generous enough to support multiple borrower species at once.
Key Findings
Two soil Caulobacter isolates each grow fastest within a distinct range of cobamide (vitamin B12-related) concentrations, and this range predicts which one dominates in co-culture.
Cobamide-producing Mesorhizobium and Priestia isolates both successfully support the growth of the two cobamide-dependent Caulobacter isolates.
All four isolates could coexist together in tri-cultures after serial passaging, with genome analysis showing cobamides were likely the main shared nutrient driving these interactions.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists found that soil bacteria compete and coexist based on how much vitamin B12-like nutrient is available, and simply measuring how each microbe grows alone can predict who wins when they're grown together.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Cobamide-based interactions between soil bacteria can be predicted based on monoculture growth.
Interactions between microbes shape the structure and function of microbial communities. While studying interactions is key to understanding microbial communities as a whole, gaining a detailed mec...
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