Directed Evolution of Microbial Communities

Overview

Journal Annu Rev Biophys

Publisher Annual Reviews

Specialty Biophysics

Date 2021 Mar 1

PMID 33646814

Citations 27

Authors

Alvaro Sanchez

Jean C C Vila

Chang-Yu Chang

Juan Diaz-Colunga

Sylvie Estrela

Maria Rebolleda-Gomez

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Directed evolution is a form of artificial selection that has been used for decades to find biomolecules and organisms with new or enhanced functional traits. Directed evolution can be conceptualized as a guided exploration of the genotype-phenotype map, where genetic variants with desirable phenotypes are first selected and then mutagenized to search the genotype space for an even better mutant. In recent years, the idea of applying artificial selection to microbial communities has gained momentum. In this article, we review the main limitations of artificial selection when applied to large and diverse collectives of asexually dividing microbes and discuss how the tools of directed evolution may be deployed to engineer communities from the top down. We conceptualize directed evolution of microbial communities as a guided exploration of an ecological structure-function landscape and propose practical guidelines for navigating these ecological landscapes.

Citing Articles

Directed Evolution of Microbial Communities in Fermented Foods: Strategies, Mechanisms, and Challenges.

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Development of a microbiome for phenolic metabolism based on a domestication approach from lab to industrial application.

Zhao W, Shi L, Han Y, Wang X, Wang J, Xu S Commun Biol. 2024; 7(1):1716.

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Artificial selection improves pollutant degradation by bacterial communities.

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The hydrocarbon pollution crisis: Harnessing the earth hydrocarbon-degrading microbiome.

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Evolution and stability of complex microbial communities driven by trade-offs.

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