Spectral algal fingerprinting and long sequencing in synthetic algal-microbial communities

Synthetic biology has advanced in creating artificial microbial and algal communities, but technical and evolutionary complexities still pose significant challenges. Traditional methods like microscopy and pigment analysis, are limited in throughput and resolution. In contrast, advancements in full-spectrum cytometry enabled high-throughput, multidimensional analysis of single cells based on size, complexity, and spectral fingerprints, offering more precision and flexibility than conventional flow cytometry. This study uses full-spectrum cytometry to analyze synthetic algal-microbial communities, enabling rapid species identification and enumeration. The workflow involves recording individual spectral signatures from monocultures, using auto-fluorescence to capture populations of interest, and creates a spectral library for further analysis. This library is then used to analyze synthetic phytoplankton communities, revealing differences in spectral signatures. The synthetic consortium experiment monitored algal growth, comparing results from different instruments, highlighting the advantages of the spectral virtual filter system for precise population separation and abundance tracking. By capturing the entire emission spectrum of each cell, this method enhances understanding of algal-microbial community dynamics and responses to environmental stressors. With development standardized spectral libraries, our work improves characterization of algal communities, advancing synthetic biology and phytoplankton ecology research