It’s not just the trapped leftovers that make the cornucopia of swarming microbes so happy and productive, it’s the structure of the kitchen sponge itself.
“THE STRUCTURE OF A SPONGE IS A PERFECT HOME FOR MICROBES.”
In a series of experiments, the researchers show how various microbial species. PThey can affect each other’s population dynamics based on factors in their structural environment, such as complexity and size.
Some bacteria thrive in a diverse community, while others prefer a solitary existence. And a physical environment that allows both types to live their best lives leads to the highest levels of biodiversity. Soil provides this kind of optimal mixed-housing environment, as does the kitchen sponge.
MICROBIAL COMMUNITY SURVIVORS
The new study’s findings suggest that industries using bacteria to perform tasks such as cleaning up pollution. Just as they produce commercial products, they must take into account structural environments, the researchers say.
“Bacteria are like people living through the pandemic: Some find it difficult to isolate themselves while others thrive,” says Lingchong You, a professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University.
“We have shown that in a complex community that has both positive and negative interactions between species, there is an intermediate amount of integration that will maximize their overall coexistence.”
Microbial communities are mixed to varying degrees throughout nature. The soil provides many nooks and crannies for different populations to grow without much interaction from their neighbors. The same can be said for the individual water droplets on the tops of leaves.
But when humans put many bacterial species together into a sticky, structureless substance to produce basic products like alcohol, biofuels and medicine, it is usually on a plate or even in a large vat. In their experiments, You and his colleagues show why these industrial efforts may be wise to begin taking a structural approach to their manufacturing efforts.
About 80 strains were coded
The researchers coded for about 80 different strains of E. coli in order to track the growth of its population. They then mixed the bacteria in various combinations in laboratory growth plates with a wide variety of potential living spaces ranging from six large wells to 1,536 tiny wells.
The large wells approximated environments in which microbial species can mix freely, while the small wells mimicked spaces where species could remain isolated.
“The small chunks actually harmed species that depend on interactions with other species for survival, while the large chunks wiped out the members that suffer from these interactions (the loners),” You says. “But the middle split allowed for maximum diversity of survivors in the microbial community.”
KITCHEN SPONGES: A COZY HOME FOR MICROBES
The results create a framework for researchers working with diverse bacterial communities to begin testing which structural environments might work best for their goals, says You. They also point out why a kitchen sponge is a habitat so useful for microbes. It mimics the different degrees of separation found in healthy soil, providing different layers of separation combined with different sizes of common spaces.
To prove this point, the researchers also ran their experiment on a strip of regular household sponge. The results showed that it is an even better microbial diversity incubator than any of the lab equipment they tested.
“A sponge, it turns out, is a very simple way to implement multi-level servings to improve the overall microbial community,” says You. “Maybe that’s why it’s a really dirty thing: The structure of a sponge is the perfect home for microbes.”
The results appear in Nature Chemical Biology.
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