Illuminating emergent properties underlying complex carbon degradation within communities of soil microorganisms
EMSL Project ID
60302
Abstract
Soil microorganisms play a key role in the global carbon cycle by degrading the complex carbon molecules comprising plant litter and cell detritus. This provides a critical ecosystem service by returning carbon to the atmosphere in the form of CO2. Carbon degradation is a complex process believed to require the contributions of multiple different soil microorganisms. Despite their importance, we still know relatively little about how soil microbial communities assemble on complex carbon sources. Here, we seek to identify the set of small molecules that govern community assembly and the collective degradation of complex carbon molecules. In Aim 1, we will construct synthetic microbial communities composed of pairs of strains from the bacterial genus Streptomyces, which is well known for catalyzing the initial steps of complex carbon degradation. Community assembly will be performed on the SubTap device that we previously developed in collaboration with PNNL (EMSL Large Scale Research Grant #50808; FY2019-20). SubTap allows us to interrogate the extracellular metabolome in high-throughput during coculture on multiple media. Microbial communities will be cultured on three minimal media containing different carbon sources (lignin, starch, and xylan). With the assistance of EMSL, we will interrogate the exometabolome of each sample using liquid extraction surface analysis (LESA; HTX SepQuant) coupled to a Thermo Scientific Q Exactive mass spectrometer (Fig. 1). Our lab has expertise in processing these data to pinpoint the set of small molecules that are produced during coculture on each complex carbon source. Comparing these m/z features will reveal those that mediate community assembly and collective degradation of complex carbon. In Aim 2, we will use 3-4 species communities to test our hypothesis that emergent interactions can be predicted from the presence or absence of specific m/z features that were associated with complex carbon degradation in Aim 1. We will then use higher molecular confidence mass spectrometry approaches to putatively identify the most predictive m/z features. The proposed study will reveal the basis of emergent interactions underlying community assembly on complex carbon sources. Importantly, this project will serve as a basis for future proposals to EMSL and the DOE. In a future proposal, we intend to extend our work to other organisms such as fungi and examine cross-kingdom interactions.
Project Details
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2022-10-01
End Date
N/A
Status
Active
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members