CAREER: Visualizing Evolution in Real-Time (VERT)

在受控的实验室培养条件下对微生物进化的研究已经导致了我们对微生物适应性的理解的根本性进展，并且也已经作为工程化具有期望特性的微生物的有价值的工具。实时可视化进化（VERT）方法使用基因相同但颜色不同（荧光）的细菌细胞来识别实验室培养物中何时发生适应性进化。本CAREER项目的目标是：1）开发VERT作为一种方法，在实验室进化过程中使用大肠杆菌（E. coli）研究微生物的进化动力学。2）将VERT技术应用于大肠杆菌的工程改造，以实现微生物系统复杂特性的工程改造。大肠杆菌对生物燃料（1-丁醇）的耐受性增强，以及3）确定大肠杆菌进化的遗传过程。通过测定1-丁醇引起的基因组结构和基因表达的变化，对大肠杆菌进行了研究。VERT将通过以下方式发展成为一种教育工具：1）开发基于网络的模块，包括一部纪录片，以广泛向公众传播关于这一技术的发展和应用的信息，2）涉及高中和本科生（特别是在科学和工程领域代表性不足的妇女和少数民族）参与研究，从而培养未来的科学家和工程师，3）用VERT来说明和教授高中和本科生的进化过程。

Studies of the evolution of microbes under controlled laboratory culture conditions have led to fundamental advances in our understanding of microbial adaptation and have also served as a valuable tool for engineering microbes with desirable properties. The visualizing evolution in real-time (VERT) method uses genetically identical but differently colored (fluorescent) bacterial cells to identify when adaptive evolution has occurred in laboratory cultures. The goals of this CAREER project are 1) to develop VERT as a method to study the evolutionary dynamics of microbes during laboratory evolution using the bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli), 2) to utilize VERT for engineering complex properties of microbial systems, by applying it to the engineering of E. coli for enhanced tolerance to a biofuel (1-butanol), and 3) to determine the genetic processes underlying the evolution of E. coli by determining the changes in genomic structure and gene expression that occur in response to 1-butanol.Broader Impacts: VERT will be developed into an educational tool by 1) developing web-based modules, including a documentary, for the broad public dissemination of information about the development and application of this technology, 2) involving high school and undergraduate students (particularly women and minorities under-represented in science and engineering) in the research, thereby training future scientists and engineers, and 3) using VERT to illustrate and teach the process of evolution to high school and undergraduate students.