Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29459649›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2018

Evolving Bacterial Fitness with an Expanded Genetic Code.

Drew S Tack, Austin C Cole, Raghav Shroff, Barrett R Morrow, Andrew D Ellington

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
10citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

10 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Advances in adaptive laboratory evolution applications forSynthetic and systems biotechnology · 2025
    Review
  2. In Vivo Biosynthesis and Direct Incorporation of Noncanonical Amino Acids into Proteins.Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology · 2025
    Review
  3. Synthesis at the Interface of Chemistry and Biology.Accounts of chemical research · 2024
    Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Genetic Code Expansion inACS synthetic biology · 2022
    Article
  7. Review
  8. AddictingACS chemical biology · 2020
    Article
  9. Review
  10. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Drew S TackNational Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. drew.scott.tack@gmail.com.ORCID 0000-0002-9380-4643
Austin C ColeCenter for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.
Raghav ShroffCenter for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.
Barrett R MorrowCenter for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.
Andrew D EllingtonCenter for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Since the fixation of the genetic code, evolution has largely been confined to 20 proteinogenic amino acids. The development of orthogonal translation systems that allow for the codon-specific incorporation of noncanonical amino acids may provide a means to expand the code, but these translation systems cannot be simply superimposed on cells that have spent billions of years optimizing their genomes with the canonical code. We have therefore carried out directed evolution experiments with an orthogonal translation system that inserts 3-nitro-L-tyrosine across from amber codons, creating a 21 amino acid genetic code in which the amber stop codon ambiguously encodes either 3-nitro-L-tyrosine or stop. The 21 amino acid code is enforced through the inclusion of an addicted, essential gene, a beta-lactamase dependent upon 3-nitro-L-tyrosine incorporation. After 2000 generations of directed evolution, the fitness deficit of the original strain was largely repaired through mutations that limited the toxicity of the noncanonical. While the evolved lineages had not resolved the ambiguous coding of the amber codon, the improvements in fitness allowed new amber codons to populate protein coding sequences.

Indexed as

Directed Molecular EvolutionAmino AcidsAmino Acyl-tRNA SynthetasesCodon, TerminatorEscherichia coliGenetic CodeGenetic FitnessProtein BiosynthesisProtein EngineeringAmino AcidsAmino Acyl-tRNA SynthetasesCodon, Terminator

Identifiers

PMID29459649
PMCPMC5818497

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.