The stability and maintenance mechanisms of the microbial ecosystem

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K15544
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 39060:Conservation of biological resources-related
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Suzuki Kenshi 東京大学, 大学院農学生命科学研究科(農学部), 特任助教 (80870188)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 微生物生態系 / 代謝ネットワーク / 環境保全

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The maintenance mechanisms of a microbial ecosystem and its stability were investigated in this study. Since the natural microbial community is too complex to analyze, five different phenol-degrading bacteria were incubated in phenol-fed chemostat culture as a model microbial community. Several equilibrium points of microbial communities were observed when the five strains were sequentially inoculated with several patterns. RNA-seq analysis suggested that phenol was occupied by the dominant strain and others utilized metabolites from the dominant strain when the community structure stabilized at an early incubation phase. On the other hand, it was more competitive for phenol in unstable culture. These results suggested that the emergence of metabolic network among microbial strains were significantly important in stabilizing a microbial community structure. Thus, the design of the metabolic network is essential to design and to control microbial community.

Free Research Field

微生物生態学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では微生物生態系の形成過程が最終的な微生物群集構造を変化させることを示した。また、微生物間で代謝ネットワークが形成できるか否かがシステムの安定性に重要であることを示唆しており、微生物生態系の形成、維持変遷に関わる根幹的知見を得ることができたと判断できる。また、複合微生物群のデザイン、制御において、微生物種だけでなく形成される代謝ネットワークを考慮する重要性を示し、微生物利用技術の発展そして地球環境保全および再生に寄与できることから社会的意義も高いと評価できる。