Over the past two decades, synthetic biologists have harnessed microbes for tasks such as biosensing, and bioproduction, leveraging an ever expanding array of biological tools Synthetic circuits can be challenging, especially as they become more complex, leading to a significant burden on the host cell, which can affect their efficiency One promising strategy to overcome these challenges is to engineer synthetic circuits within microbial consortia These communities, composed of multiple microbial populations, are naturally occurring in ecosystems and participate in intricate interactions The division of labor DoL is a common evolutionary strategy in these communities, enabling the allocation of metabolic tasks among individuals for mutual benefit Figure 1 Nevertheless, the specific mechanisms that regulate these interactions have remained significantly underinvestigated One approach to investigate these mechanisms is the rational design of interactions within model organisms