Microbial community design: methods, applications, and opportunities

Alexander Eng, Elhanan Borenstein

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

62 Scopus citations

Abstract

Microbial communities can perform a variety of behaviors that are useful in both therapeutic and industrial settings. Engineered communities that differ in composition from naturally occurring communities offer a unique opportunity for improving upon existing community functions and expanding the range of microbial community applications. This has prompted recent advances in various community design approaches including artificial selection procedures, reduction from existing communities, combinatorial evaluation of potential microbial combinations, and model-based in silico community optimization. Computational methods in particular offer a likely avenue toward improved synthetic community development going forward. This review introduces each class of design approach and surveys their recent applications and notable innovations, closing with a discussion of existing design challenges and potential opportunities for advancement.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)117-128
Number of pages12
JournalCurrent Opinion in Biotechnology
Volume58
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2019

Funding

FundersFunder number
N.I.H.1R01GM124312–01
National Institutes of HealthDP2AT00780201
National Institute of General Medical SciencesR01GM124312

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