From Compartmentalization of Bacteria within Inorganic Macrocellular Beads to the Assembly of Microbial Consortia

Abstract

Microorganisms are highly efficient biocatalysts. Yet making use of their capabilities for chemical transformations requiring synergistic interactions between different microbes is challenging as the competition for resources might reduce the diversity and ultimately disrupt the synergies. Here, a new method is proposed for constructing microbial consortia for the integration of multistep transformations. Bacteria are successively grown and trapped within semipermeable inorganic foams produced as millimeter-sized beads. The beads function as efficient living biocatalysts is demonstrated. These living heterogeneous biocatalysts are manipulated to perform cycles of biochemical reactions and furthermore assembled to perform preprogrammed sequences of reactions. This new family of living advanced biocatalysts should find applications in a wide range of basic research and industrial systems where complex tasks have to be performed by controlled consortia of microorganisms.