Cooperativity in microbial biotechnology: synthetic consortia as emerging metabolic engineering strategy for sustainable bioproduction

Microbial cell factories play an important role in the sustainable production of chemicals used in several industries, including pharmaceutical, food, polymer, and energy. Biosynthesis of these desired chemicals typically occurs through complex or extended metabolic pathways via multiple enzymatic steps. However, introducing multiple heterologous genes into a single microbial strain often creates a significant metabolic burden, making the efficient production of target chemicals challenging. To overcome the limitations of monocultures, microbial consortia can be engineered to divide complex catabolic or biosynthetic tasks among different microbial partners. In contrast to monocultures, which often suffer from metabolic burden, pathway interference, and limited tolerance to toxic intermediates, consortia-based systems may benefit from a modular division of labor. This approach enables efficient utilization of metabolic resources, enhanced pathway flux, and improved system robustness. This review focuses on the bioproduction of various target compounds by synthetic microbial consortia containing Corynebacterium glutamicum , Escherichia coli , or Pseudomonas putida at least as one partner. Where relevant, a particular focus will be laid on cooperativity in mutualistic consortia.