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Kaminski Strauss S, Schirman D, Jona G, Brooks AN, Kunjapur AM, Nguyen Ba AN, Flint A, Solt A, Mershin A, Dixit A, Yona AH, Csörgő B, Busby BP, Hennig BP, Pál C, Schraivogel D, Schultz D, Wernick DG, Agashe D, Levi D, Zabezhinsky D, Russ D, Sass E, Tamar E, Herz E, Levy ED, Church GM, Yelin I, Nachman I, Gerst JE, Georgeson JM, Adamala KP, Steinmetz LM, Rübsam M, Ralser M, Klutstein M, Desai MM, Walunjkar N, Yin N, Aharon Hefetz N, Jakimo N, Snitser O, Adini O, Kumar P, Soo Hoo Smith R, Zeidan R, Hazan R, Rak R, Kishony R, Johnson S, Nouriel S, Vonesch SC, Foster S, Dagan T, Wein T, Karydis T, Wannier TM, Stiles T, Olin-Sandoval V, Mueller WF, Bar-On YM, Dahan O, Pilpel Y. Evolthon: A community endeavor to evolve lab evolution. PLoS Biol 2019; 17:e3000182. [PMID: 30925180 PMCID: PMC6440615 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
In experimental evolution, scientists evolve organisms in the lab, typically by challenging them to new environmental conditions. How best to evolve a desired trait? Should the challenge be applied abruptly, gradually, periodically, sporadically? Should one apply chemical mutagenesis, and do strains with high innate mutation rate evolve faster? What are ideal population sizes of evolving populations? There are endless strategies, beyond those that can be exposed by individual labs. We therefore arranged a community challenge, Evolthon, in which students and scientists from different labs were asked to evolve Escherichia coli or Saccharomyces cerevisiae for an abiotic stress—low temperature. About 30 participants from around the world explored diverse environmental and genetic regimes of evolution. After a period of evolution in each lab, all strains of each species were competed with one another. In yeast, the most successful strategies were those that used mating, underscoring the importance of sex in evolution. In bacteria, the fittest strain used a strategy based on exploration of different mutation rates. Different strategies displayed variable levels of performance and stability across additional challenges and conditions. This study therefore uncovers principles of effective experimental evolutionary regimens and might prove useful also for biotechnological developments of new strains and for understanding natural strategies in evolutionary arms races between species. Evolthon constitutes a model for community-based scientific exploration that encourages creativity and cooperation. This Community Page article describes Evolthon; a first-of-its-kind community-based effort, involving about 30 participant labs around the world, aiming to explore the best strategy for evolving microorganisms to cope with an environmental challenge.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Dvir Schirman
- Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Ghil Jona
- Department of Life Sciences Core Facilities, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Aaron N. Brooks
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Aditya M. Kunjapur
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Alex N. Nguyen Ba
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Alice Flint
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Andras Solt
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Andreas Mershin
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Bits and Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Atray Dixit
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Avihu H. Yona
- Physics of Living Systems, Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Bálint Csörgő
- Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szeged, Hungary
| | - Bede Phillip Busby
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Bianca P. Hennig
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Csaba Pál
- Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szeged, Hungary
| | - Daniel Schraivogel
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Daniel Schultz
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America
| | - David G. Wernick
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Deepa Agashe
- National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India
| | - Dikla Levi
- Department of Life Sciences Core Facilities, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Dmitry Zabezhinsky
- Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Dor Russ
- Faculty of Biology, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Ehud Sass
- Department of Structural Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Einat Tamar
- Faculty of Biology, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Elad Herz
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Emmanuel D. Levy
- Department of Structural Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - George M. Church
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Idan Yelin
- Faculty of Biology, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Iftach Nachman
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Jeffrey E. Gerst
- Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Joseph M. Georgeson
- Department of Structural Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | | | - Lars M. Steinmetz
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
- Stanford Genome Technology Center, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, United States of America
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, United States of America
| | - Marc Rübsam
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Markus Ralser
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- The Molecular Biology of Metabolism laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, London, United Kingdom
- Department of Biochemistry, Charitè University Medicine, Berlin, Germany
| | - Michael Klutstein
- Faculty of Dental Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Michael M. Desai
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | | | - Ning Yin
- Faculty of Biology, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Noa Aharon Hefetz
- Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Noah Jakimo
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Bits and Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Olga Snitser
- Faculty of Biology, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Omri Adini
- Faculty of Dental Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Prashant Kumar
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Rachel Soo Hoo Smith
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Bits and Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Razi Zeidan
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Ronen Hazan
- Faculty of Dental Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Roni Rak
- Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Roy Kishony
- Faculty of Biology, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
- Faculty of Computer Science, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Shannon Johnson
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Bits and Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Harvard University Extension School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Shira Nouriel
- Faculty of Dental Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Sibylle C. Vonesch
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Simmie Foster
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Tal Dagan
- Institute of Microbiology, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany
| | - Tanita Wein
- Institute of Microbiology, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany
| | - Thrasyvoulos Karydis
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Bits and Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Timothy M. Wannier
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Timothy Stiles
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Bits and Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- BosLab, Somerville, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Viridiana Olin-Sandoval
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Department of Nutrition Physiology, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutricion Salvador Zubiran, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - William F. Mueller
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Yinon M. Bar-On
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Orna Dahan
- Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Yitzhak Pilpel
- Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
- * E-mail:
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