Advances of metagenomics in discovering novel biocatalysts.
- Author:
Kui WANG
1
;
Sidi WANG
;
Rui HUANG
;
Yuhuan LIU
Author Information
1. School of Life Science, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, Guangdong, China.
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- MeSH:
Biocatalysis;
DNA;
Genomic Library;
Metagenomics;
trends
- From:
Chinese Journal of Biotechnology
2012;28(4):420-431
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Microorganisms contain a large number of biocatalysts, which are of great potential in industrial applications. However, the traditional cultural approaches can obtain only less than 1% of microorganisms. As a culture-independent method, metagenomics is an advanced solution by means of extracting all microbial genomic DNAs in certain environmental habitat, constructing and screening metagenomic libraries to seek novel functional genes. It serves as an effective tool for studying these uncultured microorganisms. Therefore, mining novel biocatalysts from metagenome has drawn the attention of researchers in the world. In this paper, environment sample category, genomic DNA extraction, library construction and screening strategies were reviewed. Recent examples of isolated biocatalysts from metagenomic libraries were presented. Future research directions of metagenomics were also discussed.
