How to determine crossfeeding between two species?

[hannahschrenk]

We would like to extract the exact nutrient exchange (which nutrients, amount of them) between two species, however, we did not find a clear indication on how to do that. We have tried with elasticity measures, and by comparing influx and outflux, but perhaps there is a more straightforward way to gain this information? Any insight into this would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your help!

[cdiener]

If you use the grow workflow that information is contained in GrowthResults.exchanges which maps out which metabolites are produced by each microbe and which ones are consumed. If species A produces M and species B consumes it that would be a trophic interaction. If both consume it they might compete for it. A new interaction module is currently in the works, and it will give you that directly along with other measures such as total exchanges mass/carbon/nitrogen flux etc.

[hannahschrenk]

Thank you very much!