ABSTRACT
In recent years, adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) has emerged as a powerful tool for basic research in microbiology (e.g., molecular mechanisms of microbial evolution) and efforts on evolutionary engineering of microbial strains (e.g., accelerated evolution of industrial strains by bringing beneficial mutations). The ongoing rapid development of next-generation sequencing platforms has provided novel insights into growth kinetics and metabolism of microbes, and thus led to great advances of this technique. In this review, we summarize recent advances in the applications of long-term and short-term ALE techniques mainly for microbial strain engineering, and different modes of ALE are also introduced. Furthermore, we discuss the current limitations of ALE and potential solutions. We believe that the information reviewed here will make a significant contribution to further advancement of ALE.
Subject(s)
High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing , Laboratories , MutationABSTRACT
Enzymes have a wide range of applications and great industrial potential. However, large-scale applications of enzymes are restricted by the harsh industrial environment, such as high temperature, strong acid/alkali, high salt, organic solvents, and high substrate concentration. Adaptive modification (such as rational or semi-rational design, directed evolution and immobilization) is the most common strategy to improve the catalysis of enzymes under industrial conditions. Here, we review the catalysis of enzymes in the industrial environment and various methods adopted for the adaptive modifications in recent years, to provide reference for the adaptive modifications of enzymes.