GIVING evolution a bit of a kick has provided a way to “evolve” bacteria quickly and in a controlled manner in the lab. The new procedure has produced cells that make five times as much useful chemical as previous generations did.
Harris Wang and of Harvard Medical School in Boston, and their colleagues, created short strands of DNA that invade Escherichia coli and modify its genes. The strands were customised to simultaneously tweak multiple targets on the bacterium’s chromosome. By repeatedly introducing a pool of synthetic DNA to the cells, a huge variety of strains can be…
