Abstract
After several decades of microbiological research has focused on pure cultures, synergistic effects between different types of microorganisms find increasing interest. Interspecies interactions between prokaryotic cells have been studied into depth mainly with respect to syntrophic cooperations involved in methanogenic degradation of electron-rich substrates such as fatty acids, alcohols, and aromatics. Partners involved in these processes have to run their metabolism at minimal energy increments, with only fractions of an ATP unit synthesized per substrate molecule metabolized, and their cooperation is intensified by close proximity of the partner cells. New examples of such syntrophic activities are anaerobic methane oxidation by presumably methanogenic and sulfate-reducing prokaryotes, and microbially mediated pyrite formation. Syntrophic relationships have also been discovered to be involved in the anaerobic metabolization of amino acids and sugars where energetical restrictions do not necessarily force the partner organisms into strict interdependencies. The most highly developed cooperative systems among prokaryotic cells appear to be the structurally organized phototrophic consortia of the Chlorochromatium and Pelochromatium type in which phototrophic and chemotrophic bacteria not only exchange metabolites but also interact at the level of growth coordination and tactic behaviour.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Benz M, Schink B & Brune A (1998) Humic acid reduction by Propionibacterium freudenreichii and other fermenting bacteria. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 64: 4507–4512.
Biebl H & Pfennig N (1978) Growth yields of green sulfur bacteria in mixed cultures with sulfur and sulfate reducing bacteria. Arch. Microbiol. 117: 9–16.
Boetius A, Ravenschlag K, Schubert CJ, Rickert D, Widdel F, Giesecke A, Amann R, Jorgensen BB, Witte U & Pfannkuche O (2000) A marine microbial consortium apparently mediating anaerobic oxidation of methane. Nature 407: 623–626.
Boone DR, Johnson RL & Liu Y (1989) Microbial ecology of interspecies hydrogen and formate transfer in methanogenic ecosystems. In: Hattori T, Ishida Y, Maruyama Y, Morita RY & Uchida A (Eds), Recent Advances in Microbial Ecology (pp 450–453). Japan Scient. Soc. Press, Tokyo, Japan.
Bryant MP (1979) Microbial methane production - theoretical aspects. J. Anim. Sci. 48: 193–201.
Cord-Ruwisch R, Lovley DR & Schink B (1998) Growth of Geobacter sulfurreducens with acetate in syntrophic cooperation with hydrogen-oxidizing anaerobic partners. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 64: 2232–2236.
Emde R & Schink B (1990) Oxidation of glycerol, lactate, and propionate by Propionibacterium freudenreichii in a poisedpotential amperometric culture system. Arch. Microbiol. 153: 506–512.
Fröstl JM & Overmann J (1998) Physiology and tactic response of the phototrophic consortium 'Chlorochromatium aggregatum'. Arch. Microbiol. 169: 129–135.
Fröstl JM & Overmann J (2000) Phylogenetic affiliation of the bacteria that constitute phototrophic consortia. Arch. Microbiol. 174: 50–58.
Fukui M, Teske A, Assmus B, Muyzer G & Widdel F (1999) Physiology, phylogenetic relationships, and ecology of filamentous sulfate-reducing bacteria (genus Desulfonema). Arch. Microbiol. 172: 193–203.
Hattori S, Kamagata Y, Hanada S & Shoun H (2000) Thermacetogenium phaeum gen. nov., sp. nov., a strictly anaerobic, thermophilic, syntrophic acetate-oxidizing bacterium. Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 50: 1601–1609.
Hoehler TM, Alperin MJ, Albert DB & Martens CS (1994) Field and laboratory studies of methane oxidation in an anoxic marine sediment: evidence for a methanogen-sulfate reducer consortium. Global Biochem. Cycl. 8: 451–463.
Kreikenbohm R & Pfennig N (1985) Anaerobic degradation of 3.4.5-trimethoxybenzoate by a defined mixed culture of Acetobacterium woodii, Pelobacter acidigallici and Desulfobacter postgatei. FEMS Microbiol. Ecol. 31: 29–38.
Lovley DR, Coates JD, Blunt-Harris EL, Phillips EJP & Woodward JC (1996) Humic substances as electron acceptors for microbial respiration. Nature 382: 445–448.
Lovley DR, Fraga JL, Coates JD & Blunt-Harris EL (1999) Humics as an electron donor for anaerobic respiration. Environ. Microbiol. 1: 89–98.
Paerl HW & Pinckney JL (1996) A mini-review of microbial consortia: their roles in aquatic production and biogeochemical cycling. Microb. Ecol. 31: 225–47.
Pfennig N (1980) Syntrophic mixed cultures and symbiontic consortia with phototrophic bacteria: a review. In: Gottschalk G et al. (Eds) Anaerobes and Anaerobic Infections (pp 127–131). Fischer, Stuttgart, New York.
Platen H & Schink B (1987) Methanogenic degradation of acetone by an enrichment culture. Arch. Microbiol. 149: 136–141.
Platen H, Janssen PH & Schink B (1994) Fermentative degradation of acetone by an enrichment culture in membrane-separated culture devices and in cell suspensions. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 122: 27–32.
Schink B (1997) Energetics of syntrophic cooperations in methanogenic degradation. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 61: 262–280.
Schink B & Stams AJM (2002) Syntrophy among prokaryotes. In: Balows A, Trüper HG, Dworkin M, Schleifer KH (Eds) The Prokaryotes, 3rd edn. Springer, New York (in press).
Schnürer A, Schink B & Svensson BH (1996) Clostridium ultunense sp. nov., a mesophilic bacterium oxidizing acetate in syntrophic association with a hydrogenotrophic methanogenic bacterium. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 46: 1145–1152.
Stams AJM (1994) Metabolic interactions between anaerobic bacteria in methanogenic environments. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 66: 271–294.
Valentine DL & Reeburgh WS (2000) New perspectives on anaerobic methane oxidation. Environ. Microbiol. 2: 477–484.
Wilkinson TG, Topiwala HH & Hamer G (1974) Interactions in a mixed bacterial population growing on methane in continuous culture. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 16: 41–59.
Winter J & Wolfe RS (1979) Complete degradation of carbohydrate to carbon dioxide and methane by syntrophic cultures of Acetobacterium woodii and Methanosarcina barkeri. Arch. Microbiol. 121: 97–102.
Zehnder AJB & Brock TD (1979) Methane formation and methane oxidation by methanogenic bacteria. J. Bacteriol. 137: 420–432.
Zehnder AJB, Ingvorsen K & Marti T (1982) Microbiology of methane bacteria, In: Hughes DE et al. (Eds) Anaerobic Digestion (pp 45–68). Elsevier Biomedical Press, Amsterdam.
Zindel U, Freudenberg W, Rieth M, Andreesen JR, Schnell J & Widdel F (1988) Eubacterium acidaminophilum sp. nov., a versatile amino acid-degrading anaerobe producing or utilizing H2 or formate. Description and enzymatic studies. Arch. Microbiol. 150: 254–266.
Zinder SH & Koch M (1984) Non-aceticlastic methanogenesis from acetate: acetate oxidation by a thermophilic syntrophic coculture. Arch. Microbiol. 138: 263–272.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schink, B. Synergistic interactions in the microbial world. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek 81, 257–261 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020579004534
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020579004534