More complex, multi-species approaches are rather relying on non-engineered organisms, and explore varying compositions of naturally occurring species, also called synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) . Examples include a synthetic 33 bacterial strain community that can be cultured in simple laboratory conditions , or kChip, an ultrahigh-throughput co-culture platform to measure interactions among 20 soil bacteria across 40 carbon environments . These complex multi-species approaches allow for experimental ecology and evolution bridging the knowledge gap between different biology disciplines. However, more systematic and standardised studies are needed.