“Survival of the Most Productive” Tactic Boosts Output of Engineered Bacteria

Source: http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/survival-of-the-most-productive-tactic-boosts-output-of-engineered-bacteria/81250755/

By: researchers at the Wyss Institute led by geneticist George Church, Ph.D.

Published: Dec 31, 2014

Summary

Scientists at Wyss Institute are using negative selection to engineer bacteria to be more productive.  They bred the bacteria to produce an industrially-valued chemical output in quantities 22 to 36 times more than previously possible.  Billions of cells were evaluated in order to identify the rare cells with the high production phenotypes.  Once they are selected, they are forced to reproduce and the process starts again.  Multiple rounds of evolution were run to enrich the population of the most productive cells.  This results in the engineering of the cell’s central metabolic pathways, allowing the microbes to have superior pathway designs.  Chemical production and ability to evaluate the cells allows the researchers to harness evolution.  They hope to apply the methods used to improve production of more useful compounds.

Relevance

This article is relevant to what we are learning in Honors Biology by relating to 14.3 artificial selection, or selective breeding.  The scientists here are evaluating the bacteria and selectively breeding the bacteria that have the desired traits.  They also remove “cheater cells (non-producers)” as they go along with the breeding.  By doing this over and over again they are changing the gene pool in the bacteria population, leading to the perfect bacterium that is desired by the creator which is similar to what we are studying in class.