García-Ruano Daniel, Jain Akanksha, Heins Zachary J, Wong Brandon G, Yimer Wolle Ezira, Khalil Ahmad S, Coudreuse Damien
Institute of Genetics and Development of Rennes, CNRS UMR 6290 - University of Rennes 1, Rennes, France.
Institute of Biochemistry and Cellular Genetics, CNRS UMR 5095, Bordeaux, France.
bioRxiv. 2023 Apr 19:2023.03.28.534552. doi: 10.1101/2023.03.28.534552.
Experimental evolution using fast-growing unicellular organisms is a unique strategy for deciphering the principles and mechanisms underlying evolutionary processes as well as the architecture and wiring of basic biological functions. Over the past decade, this approach has benefited from the development of powerful systems for the continuous control of the growth of independently evolving cultures. While the first devices compatible with multiplexed experimental evolution remained challenging to implement and required constant user intervention, the recently-developed eVOLVER framework represents a fully automated closed-loop system for laboratory evolution assays. However, it remained difficult to maintain and compare parallel evolving cultures in tightly controlled environments over long periods of time using eVOLVER. Furthermore, a number of tools were lacking to cope with the various issues that inevitably occur when conducting such long-term assays. Here we present a significant upgrade of the eVOLVER framework, providing major modifications of the experimental methodology, hardware and software as well as a new standalone protocol. Altogether, these adaptations and improvements make the eVOLVER a versatile and unparalleled setup for long-term experimental evolution.
利用快速生长的单细胞生物进行实验进化是一种独特的策略，用于解读进化过程背后的原理和机制，以及基本生物学功能的架构和连接方式。在过去十年中，这种方法受益于强大系统的发展，这些系统可对独立进化的培养物的生长进行持续控制。虽然第一批与多重实验进化兼容的设备实施起来仍具有挑战性，且需要用户不断干预，但最近开发的eVOLVER框架代表了一种用于实验室进化分析的全自动闭环系统。然而，使用eVOLVER在长时间内于严格控制的环境中维持和比较平行进化的培养物仍然很困难。此外，缺乏一些工具来应对进行此类长期分析时不可避免出现的各种问题。在此，我们展示了eVOLVER框架的重大升级，对实验方法、硬件和软件进行了重大修改，并提供了一个新的独立协议。总之，这些调整和改进使eVOLVER成为用于长期实验进化的多功能且无与伦比的设置。
