Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Experimental evolution of Escherichia coli harboring an ancient translation protein

Betül Kaçar, Xueliang Ge, Suparna Sanyal, Eric A. Gaucher
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/040626
Betül Kaçar
1NASA Astrobiology Institute, Mountain View, CA 94035
2Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: kacar@fas.harvard.edu
Xueliang Ge
3Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, Box-596, BMC, 75124, Uppsala, Sweden
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Suparna Sanyal
3Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, Box-596, BMC, 75124, Uppsala, Sweden
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Eric A. Gaucher
4School of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 950 Atlantic Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332
5Petit H. Parker Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

The ability to design synthetic genes and engineer biological systems at the genome scale opens new means by which to characterize phenotypic states and the responses of biological systems to perturbations. One emerging method involves inserting artificial genes into bacterial genomes, and examining how the genome and its new genes adapt to each other. Here we report the development and implementation of a modified approach to this method, in which phylogenetically inferred genes are inserted into a microbial genome, and laboratory evolution is then used to examine the adaptive potential of the resulting hybrid genome. Specifically, we engineered an approximately 700-million-year old inferred ancestral variant of tufB, an essential gene encoding Elongation Factor Tu, and inserted it in a modern Escherichia coli genome in place of the native tufB gene. While the ancient homolog was not lethal to the cell, it did cause a two-fold decrease in organismal fitness, mainly due to reduced protein dosage. We subsequently evolved replicate hybrid bacterial populations for 2,000 generations in the laboratory, and examined the adaptive response via fitness assays, whole-genome sequencing, proteomics and biochemical assays. Hybrid lineages exhibit a general adaptive strategy in which the fitness cost of the ancient gene was ameliorated in part by up-regulation of protein production. We expect that this ancient-modern recombinant method may pave the way for the synthesis of organisms that exhibit ancient phenotypes, and that laboratory evolution of these organisms may prove useful in elucidating insights into historical adaptive processes.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted October 09, 2016.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Experimental evolution of Escherichia coli harboring an ancient translation protein
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Experimental evolution of Escherichia coli harboring an ancient translation protein
Betül Kaçar, Xueliang Ge, Suparna Sanyal, Eric A. Gaucher
bioRxiv 040626; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/040626
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Experimental evolution of Escherichia coli harboring an ancient translation protein
Betül Kaçar, Xueliang Ge, Suparna Sanyal, Eric A. Gaucher
bioRxiv 040626; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/040626

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Evolutionary Biology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (2418)
  • Biochemistry (4778)
  • Bioengineering (3319)
  • Bioinformatics (14635)
  • Biophysics (6618)
  • Cancer Biology (5157)
  • Cell Biology (7402)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (4342)
  • Ecology (6860)
  • Epidemiology (2057)
  • Evolutionary Biology (9887)
  • Genetics (7331)
  • Genomics (9501)
  • Immunology (4537)
  • Microbiology (12642)
  • Molecular Biology (4925)
  • Neuroscience (28234)
  • Paleontology (199)
  • Pathology (803)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (1382)
  • Physiology (2013)
  • Plant Biology (4474)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (975)
  • Synthetic Biology (1295)
  • Systems Biology (3905)
  • Zoology (722)