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Peer-reviewedCC BYNature Communications

From “synthetic” to defined microbial communities for clearer terminology

  • Hanna Koch1,2
  • Thomas Clavel3
  • Cintia Mayr4
  • Benjamin Luke Coltman5
  • Michael Schloter6
  • Julia A. Vorholt7
  • Yolanda Sanz8
  • Tomislav Cernava9
  • Gwyn A. Beattie10
  • Lene Lange11,12
  • Stéphane Chaillou13
  • Ákos T. Kovács14
21 more authors
  • Hauke Smidt15,16
  • Corné M. J. Pieterse17
  • TANJA M. KOSTIC4
  • Omri M. Finkel18
  • Christopher E. Lawson19
  • Luca Cocolin20
  • Jesús Mercado‐Blanco21
  • Robert D. Finn22
  • Kalliope Κ. Papadopoulou23
  • Matthew Ryan24
  • Marco Candela25
  • Paul D. Cotter26,27,28
  • Gabriele Berg29,30
  • Órla O’Sullivan27
  • Manuel Delgado‐Baquerizo31
  • Pankaj Trivedi32
  • Trevor C. Charles33
  • Brajesh Kumar Singh34
  • Günter Brader4
  • Malek Marian4
  • Angela Sessitsch35
35 affiliations
  1. 1Bioresources Unit, Center for Health & Bioresources, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Tulln an der Donau, Austria. [email protected]
  2. 2Division of Microbial Ecology, Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. [email protected]
  3. 3Functional Microbiome Research Group, Institute of Medical Microbiology, RWTH University Hospital, Aachen, Germany
  4. 4Bioresources Unit, Center for Health & Bioresources, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Tulln an der Donau, Austria
  5. 5Division of Microbial Ecology, Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
  6. 6Comparative Microbiome Analysis, Helmholtz, Oberschleissheim, Germany
  7. 7Institute of Microbiology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
  8. 8Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology, National Research Council (IATA-CSIC), Paterna-Valencia, Spain
  9. 9Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
  10. 10Department of Plant Pathology, Entomology & Microbiology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
  11. 11KMUTT, King Mongkut's University of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand
  12. 12LL-BioEconomy, Research & Advisory, Valby, Denmark
  13. 13Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, UMR1319 Institut MICALIS, Jouy-en-Josas, France
  14. 14Institute of Biology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
  15. 15Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
  16. 16UNLOCK, Wageningen University & Research and Delft University of Technology, Wageningen and Delft, The Netherlands
  17. 17Plant-Microbe Interactions, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
  18. 18Department of Plant & Environmental Sciences, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
  19. 19Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
  20. 20Department of Agriculture, Forest and Food Sciences, University of Turin, Grugliasco, Torino, Italy
  21. 21Microbiology of Agroforestry Ecosystems, Department Soil and Plant Microbiology, Estación Experimental del Zaidín, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (EEZ-CSIC), Granada, Spain
  22. 22European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK
  23. 23Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Laboratory of Plant and Environmental Biotechnology, University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece
  24. 24CABI, Ascot, Berkshire, UK
  25. 25Unit of Microbiome Science and Biotechnology, Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology (FaBiT), Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
  26. 26APC Microbiome, Cork, Ireland
  27. 27Teagasc Food Research Centre, Cork, Ireland
  28. 28VistaMilk, Cork, Ireland
  29. 29Institute of Environmental Biotechnology, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria
  30. 30Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB), Potsdam, Germany
  31. 31Laboratorio de Biodiversidad y Funcionamiento Ecosistémico, Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla (IRNAS), CSIC, Sevilla, Spain
  32. 32Department of Plant and Soil Science, Institute of Genomics for Crop Abiotic Stress Tolerance (IGCAST), Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
  33. 33Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
  34. 34School of Agriculture and Environment, The UWA Institute of Agriculture, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
  35. 35Bioresources Unit, Center for Health & Bioresources, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Tulln an der Donau, Austria. [email protected]
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Abstract

Consortia of microbial isolates, also known as synthetic communities (SynComs), are increasingly used to study and harness microbe-microbe and microbe-host interactions. Since “synthetic” potentially evokes negative connotations, we propose adopting the term “Defined Microbial Community” for practical applications.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{koch2026from,
  title = {{From “synthetic” to defined microbial communities for clearer terminology}},
  author = {Hanna Koch and Thomas Clavel and Cintia Mayr and Benjamin Luke Coltman and Michael Schloter and Julia A. Vorholt and Yolanda Sanz and Tomislav Cernava and Gwyn A. Beattie and Lene Lange and Stéphane Chaillou and Ákos T. Kovács and Hauke Smidt and Corné M. J. Pieterse and TANJA M. KOSTIC and Omri M. Finkel and Christopher E. Lawson and Luca Cocolin and Jesús Mercado‐Blanco and Robert D. Finn and Kalliope Κ. Papadopoulou and Matthew Ryan and Marco Candela and Paul D. Cotter and Gabriele Berg and Órla O’Sullivan and Manuel Delgado‐Baquerizo and Pankaj Trivedi and Trevor C. Charles and Brajesh Kumar Singh and Günter Brader and Malek Marian and Angela Sessitsch},
  journal = {Nature Communications},
  year = {2026},
  month = jun,
  doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-74251-1},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74251-1},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - From “synthetic” to defined microbial communities for clearer terminology
AU  - Hanna Koch
AU  - Thomas Clavel
AU  - Cintia Mayr
AU  - Benjamin Luke Coltman
AU  - Michael Schloter
AU  - Julia A. Vorholt
AU  - Yolanda Sanz
AU  - Tomislav Cernava
AU  - Gwyn A. Beattie
AU  - Lene Lange
AU  - Stéphane Chaillou
AU  - Ákos T. Kovács
AU  - Hauke Smidt
AU  - Corné M. J. Pieterse
AU  - TANJA M. KOSTIC
AU  - Omri M. Finkel
AU  - Christopher E. Lawson
AU  - Luca Cocolin
AU  - Jesús Mercado‐Blanco
AU  - Robert D. Finn
AU  - Kalliope Κ. Papadopoulou
AU  - Matthew Ryan
AU  - Marco Candela
AU  - Paul D. Cotter
AU  - Gabriele Berg
AU  - Órla O’Sullivan
AU  - Manuel Delgado‐Baquerizo
AU  - Pankaj Trivedi
AU  - Trevor C. Charles
AU  - Brajesh Kumar Singh
AU  - Günter Brader
AU  - Malek Marian
AU  - Angela Sessitsch
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/08
JO  - Nature Communications
DO  - 10.1038/s41467-026-74251-1
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74251-1
AB  - Consortia of microbial isolates, also known as synthetic communities (SynComs), are increasingly used to study and harness microbe-microbe and microbe-host interactions. Since “synthetic” potentially evokes negative connotations, we propose adopting the term “Defined Microbial Community” for practical applications.
SN  - 2041-1723
ER  -