Directed evolution of microbial communities
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Sylvie Estrela; Juan Diaz-Colunga; Jean C. C. Vila; Chang-Yu Chang; María Rebolleda-Gómez; Alvaro Sanchez
- Source
- Annu Rev Biophys
Annual review of biophysics, vol 50, iss 1
- Subject
- 0106 biological sciences
Genotype
Computer science
Biophysics
microbial communities
Bioengineering
artificial ecosystem selection
structure–function landscape
bepress|Life Sciences|Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Biochemistry
Article
Medicinal and Biomolecular Chemistry
03 medical and health sciences
collective community functions
bepress|Life Sciences
Structural Biology
Genetics
Animals
Humans
directed evolution
bepress|Life Sciences|Ecology and Evolutionary Biology|Population Biology
Selection (genetic algorithm)
030304 developmental biology
0303 health sciences
Microbiota
Human Genome
Genetic variants
Cell Biology
Top-down and bottom-up design
Chemical Engineering
Directed evolution
Biological Evolution
Data science
Phenotype
Biochemistry and Cell Biology
- Language
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.