FBS Colloquia No.416RIKEN BDR

Toward Predicting and Controlling Evolutionary Dynamics: An Approach Based on high-throughput experimental evolution

Biological evolution may appear to be a random search through an enormous space of possible genotypes and phenotypes. However, how free is actual adaptive evolution, and to what extent is it constrained? In this seminar, I will discuss the possibility that evolutionary dynamics can be described as trajectories in a low-dimensional phenotypic space, based on high-throughput evolution experiments mainly using Escherichia coli. By obtaining independent evolutionary lineages under many stress conditions and integrating analyses of drug resistance, cross-resistance and collateral sensitivity, gene expression changes, and genomic mutations, we aim to identify constraint structures that are common to adaptive evolution. I will further introduce quantitative analyses of evolutionary trajectories in resistance-performance space, evolutionary steering toward target phenotypes through feedback control, and estimation of the landscape of evolutionary potential. In the latter part of the seminar, I will also discuss genome structural changes mediated by insertion sequences and resistance evolution in microbial ecosystems, and outline the prospects of experimental evolution not only for “observing” evolution, but also for “predicting and controlling” it.