Turning Leftovers into Chemicals: Machine Learning Reveals Commonalities Among Microbial Communities

The liquid residue resulting from various agroindustrial processes is both rich in organic material and an attractive source to produce a variety of chemicals. Using microbial communities to produce chemicals from these liquid residues is an active area of research. We fed anaerobic bioreactors one of several agroindustrial residues (e.g. fermentation leftovers, dairy manure, xylose), and our analysis found common biological functions among the microbial communities in different bioreactors.