Biogenic methane cycling is controlled by microbial cohorts

The generation and consumption of methane by aquatic microbial communities is an important contribution to the global carbon budget. We sought to broaden understanding of consortia members and interactions by combining multiple methods including analysis of natural and cultivated microbial communities. By analysing the microbial community composition and co-occurrence patterns of a lake time-series we were able to identify potential consortia involved in methane cycling. In combination with methane flux, we also analysed the community composition and co-occurrence patterns of reduced microbial model communities with inoculum from the same lake. While the network analyses confirmed many known associations, when combined with results from mixed cultures, we noted new players in methane cycling. Cultivated model communities were shown to be an effective method to explore the rarer but still important players in methane cycling and for identifying new putative members. Here we show that using multiple methods to approach the complex problem of methane cycling consortia yields not just insights into the known taxa but highlights potential new members creating new hypotheses to be tested.