WestCHEM, School of Chemistry, The University of Glasgow, University Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK.
Nat Commun. 2017 Oct 26;8(1):1144. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-01161-8.
Evolution via natural selection is governed by the persistence and propagation of living things in an environment. The environment is important since it enabled life to emerge, and shapes evolution today. Although evolution has been widely studied in a variety of fields from biology to computer science, still little is known about the impact of environmental changes on an artificial chemical evolving system outside of computer simulations. Here we develop a fully automated 3D-printed chemorobotic fluidic system that is able to generate and select droplet protocells in real time while changing the surroundings where they undergo artificial evolution. The system is produced using rapid prototyping and explicitly introduces programmable environments as an experimental variable. Our results show that the environment not only acts as an active selector over the genotypes, but also enhances the capacity for individual genotypes to undergo adaptation in response to environmental pressures.
自然选择通过生物在环境中的持续存在和繁殖来控制进化。环境很重要，因为它使生命得以出现，并塑造了今天的进化。尽管从生物学到计算机科学等各个领域都对进化进行了广泛的研究，但对于在计算机模拟之外的人工化学进化系统中环境变化的影响仍然知之甚少。在这里，我们开发了一个完全自动化的 3D 打印化学机器人流体系统，它能够实时生成和选择液滴原细胞，同时改变它们进行人工进化的环境。该系统使用快速原型制作，并明确地将可编程环境作为实验变量引入。我们的结果表明，环境不仅对基因型起到了积极的选择作用，而且增强了个体基因型在应对环境压力时进行适应的能力。
