Multispecies microbial communities drive most ecosystems on Earth. Chemical and biological interactions within these communities can affect the survival of individual members and the entire community. However, the prohibitively high number of possible interactions within a microbial community has made the characterization of factors that influence community development challenging. Here, we report a Microbial Community Interaction (µCI) device to advance the systematic study of chemical and biological interactions within a microbial community. The µCI creates a combinatorial landscape made up of an array of triangular wells interconnected with circular wells, which each contains either a different chemical or microbial strain, generating chemical gradients and revealing biological interactions. Bacillus cereus UW85 containing green fluorescent protein provided the “target” readout in the triangular wells, and antibiotics or microorganisms in adjacent circular wells are designated the “variables.” The µCI device revealed that gentamicin and vancomycin are antagonistic to each other in inhibiting the target B. cereus UW85, displaying weaker inhibitory activity when used in combination than alone. We identified three-member communities constructed with isolates from the plant rhizosphere that increased or decreased the growth of B. cereus . The µCI device enables both strain-level and community-level insight. The scalable geometric design of the µCI device enables experiments with high combinatorial efficiency, thereby providing a simple, scalable platform for systematic interrogation of three-factor interactions that influence microorganisms in solitary or community life.

中文翻译：

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芯片上的微生物群落相互作用


多物种微生物群落驱动着地球上的大多数生态系统。这些群落内的化学和生物相互作用会影响个体成员和整个群落的生存。然而，微生物群落内可能发生的相互作用数量多得令人望而却步，这使得影响群落发展的因素的表征具有挑战性。在这里，我们报告了一种微生物群落相互作用 （μCI） 设备，以推进微生物群落内化学和生物相互作用的系统研究。μCI 创建了一个组合景观，由一系列与圆形孔相互连接的三角形孔组成，每个孔都包含不同的化学或微生物菌株，产生化学梯度并揭示生物相互作用。含有绿色荧光蛋白的蜡样芽孢杆菌 UW85 在三角孔中提供“靶标”读数，相邻圆孔中的抗生素或微生物被指定为“变量”。μCI 装置显示庆大霉素和万古霉素在抑制靶标蜡样芽孢杆菌 UW85 方面相互拮抗，联合使用时表现出比单独使用更弱的抑制活性。我们确定了由植物根际分离物构建的三成员群落，这些分离物增加了或减少了蜡样芽孢杆菌的生长。μCI 设备可实现应变水平和社区水平的洞察力。μCI 装置的可扩展几何设计可实现高组合效率的实验，从而为系统询问影响独居或群居生活中微生物的三因素相互作用提供了一个简单、可扩展的平台。