Quantifying the Performance of Micro-Compartmentalized Directed Evolution Protocols.
High-throughput, in vitro approaches for the evolution of enzymes rely on a random micro-encapsulation to link phenotypes to genotypes, followed by screening or selection steps. In order to optimise these approaches, or compare one to another, one needs a measure of their performance at extracting the best variants of a library. Here, we introduce a new metric, the Selection Quality Index (SQI), which can be computed from a simple mock experiment, performed with a known initial fraction of active variants. In contrast to previous approaches, our index integrates the effect of random co-encapsulation, and comes with a straightforward experimental interpretation. We further show how this new metric can be used to extract general protocol efficiency trends or reveal hidden selection mechanisms such as a counterintuitive form of beneficial poisoning in the compartmentalized self-replication protocol.
['Dramé-Maigné|Adèle|A|0000-0003-3586-0361', 'Zadorin|Anton S|AS|', 'Golovkova|Iaroslava|I|', 'Rondelez|Yannick|Y|']
directed evolution enrichment factor self-selection