S173: Application of the visualizing evolution in real-time (VERT) method to overcome biocatalyst inhibition

Enhanced tolerance of biocatalysts to inhibitors is a complex phenotype involving multiple genes and mechanisms.  Taking advantage of advances in molecular biology tools, we developed a novel method called visualizing evolution in real-time (VERT) to enhance the use of evolutionary engineering to identify the genetic determinants and mechanisms associated with complex phenotypes.  VERT allows the identification of adaptive events during evolution and helps to facilitate the subsequent isolation of beneficial mutants from the population for further characterization.  The development of VERT and application of VERT to address biocatalyst inhibition will be discussed.