Metabolic Synergy between Human Symbionts <i>Bacteroides</i> and <i>Methanobrevibacter</i>
Jennie L. Catlett, Sean Carr, Mikaela Cashman, Megan D. Smith, Mary E. Walter, Zahmeeth Sakkaff, Christine A. Kelley, Massimiliano Pierobon, Myra B. Cohen, Nicole R. Buan
Abstract
The human gut functions through a complex system of interactions between the host human tissue and the microbes which inhabit it. These diverse interactions are difficult to model or examine under controlled laboratory conditions. We studied the interactions between two dominant human gut microbes, B. thetaiotaomicron and M. smithii, using a seven-component culturing approach that allows the systematic examination of the metabolic complexity of this binary microbial system. By combining high-throughput methods with machine learning techniques, we were able to investigate the interactions between two dominant genera of the gut microbiome in a wide variety of environmental conditions. Our approach can be broadly applied to studying microbial interactions and may be extended to evaluate and curate computational metabolic models. The software tools developed for this study are available as user-friendly tutorials in the Department of Energy KBase.