Advanced strategies and tools to facilitate and streamline microbial adaptive laboratory evolution

Adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) has served as a historic microbial engineering method that mimics natural selection to obtain desired microbes. The past decade has witnessed improvements in all aspects of ALE workflow, in terms of growth coupling, genotypic diversification, phenotypic selection, and genotype- phenotype mapping. The developing growth-coupling strategies facilitate ALE to a wider range of appealing traits. In vivo mutagenesis methods and multiplexed automated culture platforms open new gates to streamline its execution. Meanwhile, the application of multi-omics analyses and multiplexed genetic engineering promote efficient knowledge mining. This article provides a comprehensive and updated review of these advances, highlights newest significant applications, and discusses future improvements, aiming to provide a practical guide for implementation of novel, effective, and efficient ALE experiments.

Automated summary

Adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE), as a microbial engineering method mimicking natural selection to obtain desired microbes, has seen significant improvements in the past decade in terms of growth coupling, genotypic diversification, phenotypic selection, and genotype-phenotype mapping. The development of growth-coupling strategies and multiplexed automated culture platforms have expanded the applicability of ALE, while multi-omics analyses and multiplexed genetic engineering have promoted efficient knowledge mining.