Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Synthetic Microbial Consortia in Microfluidic Devices

Synthetic microbial consortia consist of two or more engineered strains that grow together and share the same resources. When intercellular signaling pathways are included in the engineered strains, close proximity of the microbes can generate complex dynamic behaviors that are difficult to obtain using a single strain. However, when a consortium is not cultured in a well-mixed environment the constituent strains passively compete for space as they grow and divide, complicating cell–cell signaling. Here, we explore the temporal dynamics of the spatial distribution of consortia cocultured in microfluidic devices. To do this, we grew two different strains of Escherichia coli in microfluidic devices with cell-trapping regions (traps) of several different designs. We found that the size of the traps is a critical determinant of spatiotemporal dynamics. In small traps, cells can easily signal one another, but the relative proportion of each strain within the trap can fluctuate wildly. In large traps, the relative ratio of strains is stabilized, but intercellular signaling can be hindered by distances between cells. This presents a trade-off between the trap size and the effectiveness of intercellular signaling, which can be mitigated by increasing the initial seeding of cells in larger traps. We also built a mathematical model, which suggests that increasing the number of seed cells can also increase the strain ratio variability due to an increased number of strain interfaces in the trap. These results help elucidate the complex behaviors of synthetic microbial consortia in microfluidic traps and provide a means of analysis to help remedy the spatial heterogeneity inherent to different trap types.