AUTHOR=Reyes Luis H., Winkler James , Kao Katy C.

TITLE=Visualizing evolution in real-time method for strain engineering

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=Volume 3 - 2012

YEAR=2012

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2012.00198

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2012.00198

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=The adaptive landscape 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 throughout the course of evolution.  Combined with high-throughput genomic tools, VERT can greatly enhance the mapping of adaptive landscapes of industrially-relevant phenotypes in microbial systems, thereby expanding our knowledge on the parameters that can be used for strain engineering.