Microbial consortia were designed for the production of small molecules with 'labor' being divided between two or more microorganisms. Examples of linear designs are substrate conversion preceding target molecule production or subdivision of two consecutive steps of target molecule production. Here, we review synthetic biology design approaches for microbial consortia based on ecological principles and microbial interactions that is, mutualism, and commensalism. Besides highlighting the technical challenges regarding industrial application of synthetic microbial consortia, we forecast the extension of the concept from binary linear to ternary linear and more complex microbial consortia in biotechnological applications. Microbial consortia are here reviewed and proposed as a rational solution toward feedstock accessibility as it has been shown for production of l-lysine, l-pipecolic acid and cadaverine from starch or production of fumarate from microcrystalline cellulose and alkaline pre-treated corn, or alternatively to establish new multi-step pathway for the production of rosmarinic acid from xylose and glucose.

中文翻译：

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用于小分子生产的合成微生物联盟。

微生物联盟设计用于生产小分子，其中“劳动”被分为两种或多种微生物。线性设计的例子是靶分子生产之前的底物转化或靶分子生产的两个连续步骤的细分。在这里，我们回顾了基于生态学原理和微生物相互作用（即共生和共生）的微生物群落的合成生物学设计方法。除了着重介绍合成微生物财团在工业应用方面的技术挑战之外，我们还预测了该概念在生物技术应用中将从二元线性扩展到三元线性以及更复杂的微生物财团。