New publication in Nature Communications

We are happy and proud that this study is finally out after 6 years of work. We took a look under the hood of the evolution and adaptation of bacteria to new substrates - namely sugars. We show that the paths of bacterial adaptation to a non-native substrate primed by initial rational designs are tortuous, sometimes well traceable, sometimes not.
In this work, we decided on quality over quantity and we provide an in-depth analysis of two lineages of bacterial strains of Pseudomonas putida engineered and evolved in parallel toward better growth on abundant sugar D-xylose found in waste plant biomass.

The findings are important for better designs of microbial cell factories for the valorization of lignocellulosic waste as well as for better understanding of bacterial adaptation to non-native substrates.

Big congrats to all co-authors and especially to our two PhD candidates Barbora Burýšková and Barbora Popelářová who contributed vastly to the success of this study.