Visualizing evolution in real-time method for strain engineering

Abstract

The adaptivel and scape for an industrially relevant phenotype is determined by the effects of the genetic determinants on the fitness of the microbial system. Identifying the underlying adaptive landscape for a particular phenotype of interest will greatly enhance our abilities to engineer more robust microbial strains.Visualizing evolution in real-time (VERT) is a recently developed method based on in vitro adaptive evolution that facilitates the identification of fitter mutants through out the course of evolution. Combined with high-through put genomic tools, VERT can greatly enhance the mapping of adaptive landscapes of industrially relevant phenotypes in microbial systems, thereby expanding our knowledge on the parametersthat can be used for strain engineering. © 2012 Reyes, Winkler and Kao.