Insights into constructing a stable and efficient microbial consortium system

The concept of labor division and multi-module cooperation of microbial consortia offers it promising potentials in various areas, such as the utilization of complex substrates, synthesis of natural compounds with long metabolic pathways and remediation of environmental pollutants within a hostile environment. Consequently, synthetic microbial consortia represent a new frontier for synthetic biology because they can solve more complex problems than monocultures. However, current research on microbial consortia often involves the simple mixing of multiphase systems, where strains are co-cultured sequentially or individually cultured and then mixed-cultured. The instability and low efficiency of microbial consortia systems hindered their practical application. To construct a stable and efficient microbial consortium, it is essential to consider the different growth and metabolic characteristics of strains, the competition for various nutrients as well as the complex carbon, energy and signaling dynamics within the system. In this review, we provide a progressive strategy for constructing a stable and efficient microbial consortium system across three stages: compromised stage (work together), microenvironment-oriented stage (work better), and metabolite delivery-enhanced stage (work best). The detailed methods and points for attention of each stage are summarized, with a highlight on the technical bottleneck and application limitations. Through the integration of interdisciplinary strategies, such as materials science and mathematical models, the goal of building a stable and efficient microbial consortium is constantly advanced.