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SUMMARY:Plenary Lecture 1: Engineering syntrophic exchange in synthetic mi
 crobial communities - Wang\, H (Columbia University)
DTSTART:20141126T133000Z
DTEND:20141126T140500Z
UID:TALK56366@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Mustapha Amrani
DESCRIPTION:Co-authors: Michael T. Mee (Boston University)\, James J. Coll
 ins (Boston University)\, George M. Church (Harvard Medical School)\n\nMet
 abolic crossfeeding is an important process that can broadly shape microbi
 al communities. However\, little is known about specific crossfeeding prin
 ciples that drive the formation and maintenance of individuals within a mi
 xed population. Here\, we describe the construction of a series of synthet
 ic syntrophic communities to probe the complex interactions underlying met
 abolic exchange of amino acids. We experimentally analyzed multimember\, m
 ultidimensional communities of Escherichia coli of increasing sophisticati
 on to assess the outcomes of synergistic crossfeeding. We find that biosyn
 thetically costly amino acids including methionine\, lysine\, isoleucine\,
  arginine\, and aromatics\, tend to promote stronger cooperative interacti
 ons than amino acids that are cheaper to produce. Furthermore\, cells that
  share common intermediates along branching pathways yielded more synergis
 tic growth\, but exhibited many instances of both positive and negative ep
 istasis when these interactions sca led to higher dimensions. In more comp
 lex communities\, we find certain members exhibiting keystone species-like
  behavior that drastically impact the community dynamics. Based on compara
 tive genomic analysis of >6\,000 sequenced bacteria from diverse environme
 nts\, we present evidence suggesting that amino acid biosynthesis has been
  broadly optimized to reduce individual metabolic burden in favor of enhan
 ced crossfeeding to support synergistic growth across the biosphere. These
  results improve our basic understanding of microbial syntrophy while also
  highlighting the utility and limitations of current modeling approaches t
 o describe the dynamic complexities underlying microbial ecosystems. This 
 work sets the foundation for future endeavors to resolve key questions in 
 microbial ecology and evolution\, and presents a platform to develop bette
 r and more robust engineered synthetic communities for industrial biotechn
 ology.\n\nRelated links: http://wanglab.c2b2.columbia.edu/ - Wang Lab at C
 olumbia University\n
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Newton Institute
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