[S10-2] High-throughput Laboratory Evolution of Escherichia coli for Prediction and Control of Evolution
Biological systems change their state to evolve and adapt to changes in environmental conditions. Despite the recognized importance of characterizing the biological capacity to adapt and evolve, studies on biological evolvability and plasticity have remained at a qualitative level. To unveil how the course of evolution is constrained in high-dimensional phenotype and genotype spaces, we performed laboratory evolution under various stress environments using an automated culture system we developed. Then, we quantified the changes in gene expression profile, resistance profile to various stresses, and genomic sequence. The results of these comprehensive analyses demonstrated that the phenotypic and genotypic changes were constrained on a relatively small number of possible patterns even under diverse selection pressures. Based on these results, we will discuss the nature of phenotypic plasticity and constraint in bacterial evolution, and strategies to predict and control the evolutionary dynamics.