REVIEW

Ecological mechanisms and functional stability of lactic acid Bacteria in synthetic microbial communities: Competition, cross-feeding, and homeostasis maintenance.

Food research international (Ottawa, Ont.) · 11 August 2026 · DOI 10.1016/j.foodres.2026.119779

Lactic acid bacteria were examined as drivers of stability in engineered multispecies microbial systems. The review integrated evidence on competition, metabolite sharing, and homeostatic processes, while comparing bacterial functions in synthetic and natural communities. It concluded that acid production, antimicrobials, lactate exchange, metabolic coupling, and overlapping functions can support colonization, resource sharing, resilience, and stable performance. The authors also assessed applications in inflammatory bowel disease and industrial fermentation, and proposed a tiered framework alongside multi-omics and modeling for designing controllable consortia.