Towards a Better Understanding of Microbial Community Dynamics through High-Throughput Cultivation and Data Integration

The investigation of microbial community dynamics is hampered by low resolution, a lack of control, and a small number of replicates. These deficiencies can be tackled with defined communities grown under well-controlled conditions in high-throughput automated cultivation devices. Besides delivering high-quality microbial community data, automated cultivation will also ease measurement of the basic parameters needed to parameterize mathematical models of microbial communities. Better experimental data will allow revisiting classical ecological questions, such as the impact of community structure on dynamics. In addition, such data will allow validation and comparison of community models and benchmarking of microbial data analysis software. In summary, high-throughput automated cultivation will lead to a deeper understanding of microbial community dynamics through better models and software.