Precise, automated control of conditions for high-throughput growth of yeast and bacteria with eVOLVER

Precise control over microbial cell growth conditions could enable detection of minute phenotypic changes, which would improve our understanding of how genotypes are shaped by adaptive selection. Although automated cell-culture systems such as bioreactors offer strict control over liquid culture con...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNature biotechnology Vol. 36; no. 7; pp. 614 - 623
Main Authors Wong, Brandon G, Mancuso, Christopher P, Kiriakov, Szilvia, Bashor, Caleb J, Khalil, Ahmad S
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Nature Publishing Group 01.08.2018
Subjects
Adaptive control
Automatic control
Automation
Bacteria
Biological evolution
Bioreactors
Cell culture
Do it yourself work
Evolution (Biology)
Genomes
Genomics
Genotypes
Growth conditions
Large scale integration
Liquid culture
Microbial colonies
Microbiology
Microfluidics
Microorganisms
Molecular biology
Molecular chains
Molecular evolution
Multiplexing
Phenotypes
Physiological aspects
Redesign
Yeast
Yeasts
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Summary:Precise control over microbial cell growth conditions could enable detection of minute phenotypic changes, which would improve our understanding of how genotypes are shaped by adaptive selection. Although automated cell-culture systems such as bioreactors offer strict control over liquid culture conditions, they often do not scale to high-throughput or require cumbersome redesign to alter growth conditions. We report the design and validation of eVOLVER, a scalable do-it-yourself (DIY) framework, which can be configured to carry out high-throughput growth experiments in molecular evolution, systems biology, and microbiology. High-throughput evolution of yeast populations grown at different densities reveals that eVOLVER can be applied to characterize adaptive niches. Growth selection on a genome-wide yeast knockout library, using temperatures varied over different timescales, finds strains sensitive to temperature changes or frequency of temperature change. Inspired by large-scale integration of electronics and microfluidics, we also demonstrate millifluidic multiplexing modules that enable multiplexed media routing, cleaning, vial-to-vial transfers and automated yeast mating.
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Co-first author
ISSN:1087-0156
1546-1696
DOI:10.1038/nbt.4151