Conserved emergent traits enable phylogenetic prediction of community function
- 1Delft University of Technology
Abstract
Predicting the function of a microbial community from the identity of its members is a key goal of ecology and biotechnology. Here, we show that the systematic variation in how strains contribute to community function is phylogenetically conserved. This allows us to predict the collective function of communities solely from their member's taxonomic identity. Using soymilk fermentation as a model, we measured three industrially relevant functions - acidification, texture, sensory grade - across 307 synthetic communities combining 33 phylogenetically diverse lactic acid bacteria strains. The functional effect of a strain scaled linearly with the function of the receiving community, allowing us to summarize each strain's contribution across communities with two parameters, intercept and slope. These parameters were phylogenetically conserved, allowing us to impute their values for 17 previously unassayed strains, and use them to predict the three functions in 14 newly assembled communities. By redefining community function in terms of conserved emergent species traits, our results enable predictive engineering of microbial consortia at scale, and open a path towards genomic and evolutionary dissection of complex community phenotypes.
Related
- A unified framework reveals how evolutionary scale and abundance weighting shape phylogenetic community structure
- An integrated multi-omic atlas of the choroid plexus highlights conserved molecular programs of epithelial function
- Universally conserved isoasparylation sustains ribosome biogenesis and function
- Conserved molecular compatibility for MIZ1 function in cytokinin signaling in land plants
- Distinct root apoplastic barrier distribution and conserved peroxidase function in desert trees
BibTeX
@misc{gojkovic2026conserved,
title = {{Conserved emergent traits enable phylogenetic prediction of community function}},
author = {U. Gojkovic and Z. Miloradovic and N. Popovic and G. Vukotic and N. Medakovic and N. Stanisavljevic and N. Kljajevic and D. Bajic},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
doi = {10.64898/2026.06.09.731074},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.09.731074v2},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Conserved emergent traits enable phylogenetic prediction of community function
AU - U. Gojkovic
AU - Z. Miloradovic
AU - N. Popovic
AU - G. Vukotic
AU - N. Medakovic
AU - N. Stanisavljevic
AU - N. Kljajevic
AU - D. Bajic
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/06/09
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.06.09.731074
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.09.731074v2
AB - Predicting the function of a microbial community from the identity of its members is a key goal of ecology and biotechnology. Here, we show that the systematic variation in how strains contribute to community function is phylogenetically conserved. This allows us to predict the collective function of communities solely from their member's taxonomic identity. Using soymilk fermentation as a model, we measured three industrially relevant functions - acidification, texture, sensory grade - across 307 synthetic communities combining 33 phylogenetically diverse lactic acid bacteria strains. The functional effect of a strain scaled linearly with the function of the receiving community, allowing us to summarize each strain's contribution across communities with two parameters, intercept and slope. These parameters were phylogenetically conserved, allowing us to impute their values for 17 previously unassayed strains, and use them to predict the three functions in 14 newly assembled communities. By redefining community function in terms of conserved emergent species traits, our results enable predictive engineering of microbial consortia at scale, and open a path towards genomic and evolutionary dissection of complex community phenotypes.
ER -