The engineering of spatially linked microbial consortia – potential and perspectives
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Date
2020-04
Publication Type
Review Article
ETH Bibliography
yes
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Abstract
Traditional biotechnological applications of microorganisms employ mono-cultivation or co-cultivation in well-mixed vessels disregarding the potential of spatially organized cultures. Metabolic specialization and guided species interactions facilitated through spatial isolation would enable consortia of microbes to accomplish more complex functions than currently possible, for bioproduction as well as biodegradation processes. Here, we review concepts of spatially linked microbial consortia in which spatial arrangement is optimized to increase control and facilitate new
species combinations. We highlight that genome-scale metabolic network models can inform the design and tuning of synthetic microbial consortia and suggest that a standardized assembly of such systems allows the combination of ‘incompatibles’, potentially leading to countless novel applications.
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published
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Book title
Journal / series
Volume
62
Pages / Article No.
137 - 145
Publisher
Elsevier
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Edition / version
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Software
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Date collected
Date created
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Organisational unit
03812 - Or, Dani (emeritus) / Or, Dani (emeritus)
03743 - Ackermann, Martin / Ackermann, Martin