Cross-feeding, or the exchange of nutrients between organisms, is fundamental to the diversity and function of microbial communities. However, pinpointing the corresponding donors and receivers to understand more about this nutrient exchange is challenging as amino acids, nucleotides and more are universal across all species. Unlike DNA and RNA, these metabolites cannot be assigned to a species once outside of the cell. This study from the Patil lab presents how a new technique called 13C-metaproteomics allows the tracing of such metabolites within a microbial community.

'Unravelling metabolic cross-feeding in a yeast–bacteria community using 13C-based proteomics' was published on 13 February 2023 in the journal Molecular Systems Biology. Read the full publication here.