Scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have made a groundbreaking discovery about how tiny organisms work together, according to new research published in Nature Microbiology.
The study, conducted by Dr. Sarah Moraïs and overseen by Prof. Itzhak Mizrahi, reveals that microorganisms deliberately modify their actions when living alongside other microbes in communities. Rather than fighting for resources, these microscopic creatures sense their neighbors and adapt their functions to avoid direct conflict.
This research tackles a puzzle that has long intrigued scientists: how can numerous microbial species survive together when logic suggests they should be battling for the same food sources? The answer lies in their ability to recognize other microbes and change their biological roles, creating less overlap and reducing head-to-head competition.
The research team built experimental microbial communities using bacteria from digestive systems. Instead of simply identifying which species were present, they tracked protein creation to understand what job each microbe was actually performing in the group.
“A microbe is not defined only by its genome, which represents its potential, but also by its community. The same bacterium can behave very differently depending on who surrounds it,” Moraïs explained.
The results show that microbial communities operate like well-organized teams where members split up responsibilities rather than competing against each other. Scientists believe this discovery could explain how complex microbiomes form and maintain their stability over time.
These findings could have wide-ranging practical applications. Prof. Mizrahi noted that for human health, creating effective probiotics might require choosing microbe combinations that naturally share different functions. In farming, better understanding of how microbes organize themselves could lead to improved animal feed efficiency and lower emissions. The biotechnology field might also benefit by developing systems using multiple microbes instead of relying on single engineered organisms.
The research team included scientists from Ben-Gurion University and the University of Greifswald. Funding came from the European Research Council, the Israel Science Foundation–Swiss National Science Foundation partnership, and the Israel Science Foundation.
