小柯机器人

近日，美国麻省理工学院Kevin M. Esvelt、Erika A. DeBenedictis等研究人员合作通过系统分子演化实现有力的生物分子发掘。这一研究成果于2021年12月30日在线发表在国际学术期刊《自然—方法学》上。

研究人员开发了一个机器人系统，称为噬菌体和机器人辅助的近连续演化（PRANCE），通过在高通量下进行噬菌体辅助的连续演化来全面探索生物分子演化。PRANCE实施了一个自动反馈控制系统，根据对每个分子活动的实时测量，调整选择的严格程度。在演化三种不同类型的生物大分子时，研究人员发现演化被随机机会和环境变化的历史模式重现地改变。这项工作提高了蛋白质工程的可靠性，使人们能够系统地分析支配生物分子演化的历史、环境和随机因素。

据悉，当来自环境的选择压力随着时间的推移形成遗传性变异时，演化就会发生。在实验室里，演化通常被用来设计蛋白质和RNA，但实验约束限制了可重复和可靠地探索的能力，诸如种群多样性、环境变化的时间和结果的机会等因素。

附：英文原文

Title: Systematic molecular evolution enables robust biomolecule discovery

Author: DeBenedictis, Erika A., Chory, Emma J., Gretton, Dana W., Wang, Brian, Golas, Stefan, Esvelt, Kevin M.

Issue&Volume: 2021-12-30

Abstract: Evolution occurs when selective pressures from the environment shape inherited variation over time. Within the laboratory, evolution is commonly used to engineer proteins and RNA, but experimental constraints have limited the ability to reproducibly and reliably explore factors such as population diversity, the timing of environmental changes and chance on outcomes. We developed a robotic system termed phage- and robotics-assisted near-continuous evolution (PRANCE) to comprehensively explore biomolecular evolution by performing phage-assisted continuous evolution in high-throughput. PRANCE implements an automated feedback control system that adjusts the stringency of selection in response to real-time measurements of each molecular activity. In evolving three distinct types of biomolecule, we find that evolution is reproducibly altered by both random chance and the historical pattern of environmental changes. This work improves the reliability of protein engineering and enables the systematic analysis of the historical, environmental and random factors governing biomolecular evolution. 

DOI: 10.1038/s41592-021-01348-4

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-021-01348-4

Nature Methods：《自然—方法学》，创刊于2004年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：47.99
官方网址：https://www.nature.com/nmeth/
投稿链接：https://mts-nmeth.nature.com/cgi-bin/main.plex