Environmentally mediated interactions predict community assembly and invasion success in a gut microbiota synthetic community

. Our findings show that interactions through soluble compounds in the environment dictate co-culture growth and invasions. Furthermore, model analysis shows that interactions within the resident community and toward the invader are both important, but the latter dominate. These results pave the way for larger-scale studies to characterize gut microbiome interactions and properties that resist invasions, potentially benefiting health through improved probiotics and fecal microbiota transplants.