Harnessing the power of evolution for biotechnology by adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) approach

Adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) due to its simplicity and effectiveness have been used to improve important industrial straits properties such as carbon source utilization, stability in unpleasant environmental conditions and tolerance to chemical inhibitors. No need for prior genetic knowledge of desired strain makes ALE as a powerful approach for strain development even for species with minimal genotypic information. While the procedures for adaptive laboratory evolution has remained similar for many years, recent advances promise for improving the experimental workflows for evolutionary engineering by accelerating the pace of evolution and simplifying the analysis of evolved strains. The aim of this review is highlighting recent advances in this area and evaluation of this technique application in biotechnology.