Methods of designing production of microbial communities, methods of producing microbial communities, and microbial communities produced thereby

A method of designing production of a microbial community comprising different microbe subsets of a set of microbes in a proportion approximating a target proportion and, optionally, producing the microbial community, the method comprising:

• (1) designing a target medium, comprising:
• (1a) growing each of the microbe subsets separately to carrying capacity in each of multiple test media comprising different test-concentration profiles;
• (1b) determining proportion of microbe subset carrying capacities in each test medium to thereby obtain test-medium proportions corresponding to the test-concentration profiles;
• and
• (1c) determining from the test-medium proportions and the corresponding test-concentration profiles a target-concentration profile yielding or predicting to yield a target-medium proportion of microbe subset carrying capacities that differs from at least one of the test-medium proportions, wherein the target medium is defined as comprising the target-concentration profile;
• and/or
• (2) designing a target-inoculum-density profile, comprising:
• (2a) growing to stationary phase the microbe subsets together in each of multiple inoculum test cultures inoculated with different test-inoculum-density profiles of the microbe subsets;
• (2b) determining proportion of the microbe subsets at stationary phase in each inoculum test culture to thereby obtain test-inoculum-density proportions corresponding to the test-inoculum-density profiles;
• and
• (2c) determining the target-inoculum-density profile from the test-inoculum-density proportions and the corresponding test-inoculum-density profiles, wherein the target-inoculum-density profile yields or is predicted to yield a target-inoculum-density proportion of the microbe subsets that differs from at least one of the test-inoculum-density proportions.