Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and The Program for Systems Synthetic and Quantitative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States.
Department of Biology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Mississauga, Canada; Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2022 Aug;75:101943. doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2022.101943. Epub 2022 Jun 22.
Experimental evolution with microbial model systems has transformed our understanding of the basic rules underlying ecology and evolution. Experiments leveraging evolution as a central feature put evolutionary theories to the test, and modern sequencing and engineering tools then characterized the molecular basis of adaptation. As theory and experimentations refined our understanding of evolution, a need to increase throughput and experimental complexity has emerged. Here, we summarize recent technologies that have made high-throughput experiments practical and highlight studies that have capitalized on these tools, defining an exciting new era in microbial experimental evolution. Multiple research directions previously limited by experimental scale are now accessible for study and we believe applying evolutionary lessons from in vitro studies onto these applied settings has the potential for major innovations and discoveries across ecology and medicine.
实验进化与微生物模式系统相结合，改变了我们对生态学和进化基本规律的理解。利用进化作为核心特征的实验将进化理论付诸检验，而现代测序和工程工具则描述了适应的分子基础。随着理论和实验不断完善我们对进化的理解，提高通量和实验复杂性的需求已经出现。在这里，我们总结了最近使高通量实验成为可能的技术，并强调了利用这些工具进行的研究，这标志着微生物实验进化的一个令人兴奋的新时代的到来。以前受实验规模限制的多个研究方向现在都可以进行研究，我们相信，将体外研究的进化经验应用于这些应用环境中，有可能在生态学和医学领域带来重大创新和发现。
