Our recent work uses #kefir – a natural milk fermenting community – to unravel mechanisms of coexistence in complex communities. Now on bioRxiv: biorxiv.org/content/10.110… (thread 1/5) 
We show how microbes poorly suited for milk surprisingly dominate the kefir community through metabolic cooperation. The kefir grain acts as a ‘basecamp’ for this complex community (30-50 species), from which they colonize the milk in a complex yet organized manner (thread 2/5)
The ability of the microbial species in kefir to stick together and collaborate is what makes them successful, e.g. by being more stress resistant. This image shows one of the interaction networks we uncovered for kefir species
(thread 3/5)
(thread 3/5)
The underlying species and metabolite dynamics, and species networks are available here biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
A big thank you to our collaborators: Ruben Mars & Uwe Sauer @ETH_en, @BasTeusink @VUAmsterdam, @ask_jens and @Chr_Hansen and all members of my lab @embl!
A big thank you to our collaborators: Ruben Mars & Uwe Sauer @ETH_en, @BasTeusink @VUAmsterdam, @ask_jens and @Chr_Hansen and all members of my lab @embl!
So, fellow microbiologists/ecologists: if you are looking for a model microbial community that’s natural, complex, with intricate dynamics, and yet easy to culture and application relevant – use kefir!
#microbiology #microbiologist (thread 5/5)
#microbiology #microbiologist (thread 5/5)
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