Selected publications
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(2019) Molecular Cell. 75, 3, p. 427-441 Abstract
The translation machinery and the genes it decodes co-evolved to achieve production throughput and accuracy. Nonetheless, translation errors are frequent, and they affect physiology and protein evolution. Mapping translation errors in proteomes and understanding their causes is hindered by lack of a proteome-wide experimental methodology. We present the first methodology for systematic detection and quantification of errors in entire proteomes. Following proteome mass spectrometry, we identify, in E. coli and yeast, peptides whose mass indicates specific amino acid substitutions. Most substitutions result from codon-anticodon mispairing. Errors occur at sites that evolve rapidly and that minimally affect energetic stability, indicating selection for high translation fidelity. Ribosome density data show that errors occur at sites where ribosome velocity is higher, demonstrating a trade-off between speed and accuracy. Treating bacteria with an aminoglycoside antibiotic or deprivation of specific amino acids resulted in particular patterns of errors. These results reveal a mechanistic and evolutionary basis for translation fidelity.
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(2019) PLoS Biology. 17, 3, e3000182. Abstract
In experimental evolution, scientists evolve organisms in the lab, typically by challenging them to new environmental conditions. How best to evolve a desired trait? Should the challenge be applied abruptly, gradually, periodically, sporadically? Should one apply chemical mutagenesis, and do strains with high innate mutation rate evolve faster? What are ideal population sizes of evolving populations? There are endless strategies, beyond those that can be exposed by individual labs. We therefore arranged a community challenge, Evolthon, in which students and scientists from different labs were asked to evolve Escherichia coli or Saccharomyces cerevisiae for an abiotic stresslow temperature. About 30 participants from around the world explored diverse environmental and genetic regimes of evolution. After a period of evolution in each lab, all strains of each species were competed with one another. In yeast, the most successful strategies were those that used mating, underscoring the importance of sex in evolution. In bacteria, the fittest strain used a strategy based on exploration of different mutation rates. Different strategies displayed variable levels of performance and stability across additional challenges and conditions. This study therefore uncovers principles of effective experimental evolutionary regimens and might prove useful also for biotechnological developments of new strains and for understanding natural strategies in evolutionary arms races between species. Evolthon constitutes a model for community-based scientific exploration that encourages creativity and cooperation.
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(2018) Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America-Biological Sciences. 115, 21, p. E4940-E4949 Abstract
Although the genetic code is redundant, synonymous codons for the same amino acid are not used with equal frequencies in genomes, a phenomenon termed "codon usage bias." Previous studies have demonstrated that synonymous changes in a coding sequence can exert significant cis effects on the gene's expression level. However, whether the codon composition of a gene can also affect the translation efficiency of other genes has not been thoroughly explored. To study how codon usage bias influences the cellular economy of translation, we massively converted abundant codons to their rare synonymous counterpart in several highly expressed genes in Escherichia coli. This perturbation reduces both the cellular fitness and the translation efficiency of genes that have high initiation rates and are naturally enriched with the manipulated codon, in agreement with theoretical predictions. Interestingly, we could alleviate the observed phenotypes by increasing the supply of the tRNA for the highly demanded codon, thus demonstrating that the codon usage of highly expressed genes was selected in evolution to maintain the efficiency of global protein translation.
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(2017) Genome Research. 27, 10, p. 1696-1703 Abstract
Adenosine (A) to inosine (I) RNA editing is widespread in eukaryotes. In prokaryotes, however, A-to-I RNA editing was only reported to occur in tRNAs but not in protein-coding genes. By comparing DNA and RNA sequences of Escherichia coli, we show for the first time that A-to-I editing occurs also in prokaryotic mRNAs and has the potential to affect the translated proteins and cell physiology. We found 15 novel A-to-I editing events, of which 12 occurred within known protein-coding genes where they always recode a tyrosine (TAC) into a cysteine (TGC) codon. Furthermore, we identified the tRNA-specific adenosine deaminase (tadA) as the editing enzyme of all these editing sites, thus making it the first identified RNA editing enzyme that modifies both tRNAs and mRNAs. Interestingly, several of the editing targets are self-killing toxins that belong to evolutionarily conserved toxin-antitoxin pairs. We focused on hokB, a toxin that confers antibiotic tolerance by growth inhibition, as it demonstrated the highest level of such mRNA editing. We identified a correlated mutation pattern between the edited and a DNA hard-coded Cys residue positions in the toxin and demonstrated that RNA editing occurs in hokB in two additional bacterial species. Thus, not only the toxin is evolutionarily conserved but also the editing itself within the toxin is. Finally, we found that RNA editing in hokB increases as a function of cell density and enhances its toxicity. Our work thus demonstrates the occurrence, regulation, and functional consequences of RNA editing in bacteria.
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(2017) Molecular Cell. 65, 1, p. 142-153 Abstract
Gene expression burdens cells by consuming resources and energy. While numerous studies have investigated regulation of expression level, little is known about gene design elements that govern expression costs. Here, we ask how cells minimize production costs while maintaining a given protein expression level and whether there are gene architectures that optimize this process. We measured fitness of similar to 14,000 E. coli strains, each expressing a reporter gene with a unique 5' architecture. By comparing cost-effective and ineffective architectures, we found that cost per protein molecule could be minimized by lowering transcription levels, regulating translation speeds, and utilizing amino acids that are cheap to synthesize and that are less hydrophobic. We then examined natural E. coli genes and found that highly expressed genes have evolved more forcefully to minimize costs associated with their expression. Our study thus elucidates gene design elements that improve the economy of protein expression in natural and heterologous systems.
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(2015) Cell. 163, 3, p. 549-559 Abstract
Adaptation is the process in which organisms improve their fitness by changing their phenotype using genetic or non-genetic mechanisms. The adaptation toolbox consists of varied molecular and genetic means that we posit span an almost continuous "adaptation spectrum." Different adaptations are characterized by the time needed for organisms to attain them and by their duration. We suggest that organisms often adapt by progressing the adaptation spectrum, starting with rapidly attained physiological and epigenetic adaptations and culminating with slower long-lasting genetic ones. A tantalizing possibility is that earlier adaptations facilitate realization of later ones.
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(2014) eLife. 3, August2014, p. 1-19 03440. Abstract
In all living organisms, ribosomes translating membrane proteins are targeted to membrane translocons early in translation, by the ubiquitous signal recognition particle (SRP) system. In eukaryotes, the SRP Alu domain arrests translation elongation of membrane proteins until targeting is complete. Curiously, however, the Alu domain is lacking in most eubacteria. In this study, by analyzing genome-wide data on translation rates, we identified a potential compensatory mechanism in E. coli that serves to slow down the translation during membrane protein targeting. The underlying mechanism is likely programmed into the coding sequence, where Shine–Dalgarnolike elements trigger elongation pauses at strategic positions during the early stages of translation. We provide experimental evidence that slow translation during targeting and improves membrane protein production fidelity, as it correlates with better folding of overexpressed membrane proteins. Thus, slow elongation is important for membrane protein targeting in E. coli, which utilizes mechanisms different from the eukaryotic one to control the translation speed.
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(2014) Cell. 158, 6, p. 1281-1292 Abstract
A dichotomous choice for metazoan cells is between proliferation and differentiation. Measuring tRNA pools in various cell types, we found two distinct subsets, one that is induced in proliferating cells, and repressed otherwise, and another with the opposite signature. Correspondingly, we found that genes serving cell-autonomous functions and genes involved in multicellularity obey distinct codon usage. Proliferation-induced and differentiation-induced tRNAs often carry anticodons that correspond to the codons enriched among the cell-autonomous and the multicellularity genes, respectively. Because mRNAs of cell-autonomous genes are induced in proliferation and cancer in particular, the concomitant induction of their codon-enriched tRNAs suggests coordination between transcription and translation. Histone modifications indeed change similarly in the vicinity of cell-autonomous genes and their corresponding tRNAs, and in multicellularity genes and their tRNAs, suggesting the existence of transcriptional programs coordinating tRNA supply and demand. Hence, we describe the existence of two distinct translation programs that operate during proliferation and differentiation.
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(2012) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 109, 51, p. 21010-21015 Abstract
Aneuploidy, an abnormal number of chromosomes, is a widespread phenomenon found in unicellulars such as yeast, as well as in plants and in mammalians, especially in cancer. Aneuploidy is a genomescale aberration that imposes a severe burden on the cell, yet under stressful conditions specific aneuploidies confer a selective advantage. This dual nature of aneuploidy raises the question of whether it can serve as a stable and sustainable evolutionary adaptation. To clarify this, we conducted a set of laboratory evolution experiments in yeast and followed the long-term dynamics of aneuploidy under diverse conditions. Herewe showthat chromosomal duplications are first acquired as a crude solution to stress, yet only as transient solutions that are eliminated and replaced by more efficient solutions obtained at the individual gene level. These transient dynamics of aneuploidy were repeatedly observed in our laboratory evolution experiments; chromosomal duplications gained under stress were eliminated not only when the stress was relieved, but even if it persisted. Furthermore, when stress was applied gradually rather than abruptly, alternative solutions appear to have emerged, but not aneuploidy. Our findings indicate that chromosomalduplicationis afirst evolutionary line of defense, that retains survivability under strong and abrupt selective pressures, yet it merely serves as a "quick fix," whereas more refined and sustainable solutions take over. Thus, in the perspective of genome evolution trajectory, aneuploidy is a useful yet short-lived intermediate that facilitates further adaptation.
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(2010) Cell. 141, 2, p. 344-354 Abstract
Recent years have seen intensive progress in measuring protein translation. However, the contributions of coding sequences to the efficiency of the process remain unclear. Here, we identify a universally conserved profile of translation efficiency along mRNAs computed based on adaptation between coding sequences and the tRNA pool. In this profile, the first ∼30-50 codons are, on average, translated with a low efficiency. Additionally, in eukaryotes, the last ∼50 codons show the highest efficiency over the full coding sequence. The profile accurately predicts position-dependent ribosomal density along yeast genes. These data suggest that translation speed and, as a consequence, ribosomal density are encoded by coding sequences and the tRNA pool. We suggest that the slow " ramp" at the beginning of mRNAs serves as a late stage of translation initiation, forming an optimal and robust means to reduce ribosomal traffic jams, thus minimizing the cost of protein expression.
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(2009) Nature. 460, 7252, p. 220-224 Abstract
Natural habitats of some microorganisms may fluctuate erratically, whereas others, which are more predictable, offer the opportunity to prepare in advance for the next environmental change. In analogy to classical Pavlovian conditioning, microorganisms may have evolved to anticipate environmental stimuli by adapting to their temporal order of appearance. Here we present evidence for environmental change anticipation in two model microorganisms, Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We show that anticipation is an adaptive trait, because pre-exposure to the stimulus that typically appears early in the ecology improves the organisms fitness when encountered with a second stimulus. Additionally, we observe loss of the conditioned response in E. coli strains that were repeatedly exposed in a laboratory evolution experiment only to the first stimulus. Focusing on the molecular level reveals that the natural temporal order of stimuli is embedded in the wiring of the regulatory networkearly stimuli pre-induce genes that would be needed for later ones, yet later stimuli only induce genes needed to cope with them. Our work indicates that environmental anticipation is an adaptive trait that was repeatedly selected for during evolution and thus may be ubiquitous in biology.
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(2009) Cell. 136, 3, p. 389-392 Abstract
Many crucial components of signal transduction, developmental, and metabolic pathways have functionally redundant copies. Further, these redundancies show surprising evolutionary stability over prolonged time scales. We propose that redundancies are not just archeological leftovers of ancient gene duplications, but rather that synergy arising from feedback between redundant copies may serve as an information processing element that facilitates signal transduction and the control of gene expression.