Metabolic crossfeeding structures the assembly of polysaccharide degrading communities

• Published in: bioRxiv
• Main Authors: Pontrelli, Sammy, Szabo, Rachel, Pollak, Shaul, Schwartzman, Julia A, Ledezma-Tejeida, Daniela, Cordero, Otto X, Sauer, Uwe
• Format: Paper
• Language: English
• Published: Cold Spring Harbor Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press 28.11.2021
• Subjects: Biopolymers; Chitin; Consumers; Metabolism; Metabolites; Organic matter; Polysaccharides; Resource availability
• DOI: 10.1101/2021.06.22.449372

Metabolic processes that fuel the growth of heterotrophic microbial communities are initiated by specialized biopolymer degraders that decompose complex forms of organic matter. It is unclear, however, to what extent degraders control the downstream assembly of the community that follows polymer breakdown. Investigating a model marine microbial community that degrades chitin, we show that chitinases secreted by different degraders produce oligomers of specific chain lengths that not only select for specialized consumers but also influence the metabolites secreted by these consumers into a shared resource pool. Each species participating in the breakdown cascade exhibits unique hierarchical preferences for substrates, which underlies the sequential colonization of metabolically distinct groups as resource availability changes over time. By identifying the metabolic underpinnings of microbial community assembly, we reveal a hierarchical crossfeeding structure that allows biopolymer degraders to shape the dynamics of community assembly. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Footnotes * Figure four, and the section "Inferring metabolite exchange networks that explain coculture outcomes" have been updated. This involved the addition of one more supplemental file