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Updating the metagenomics toolbox
Author(s) -
Gabor Esther,
Liebeton Klaus,
Niehaus Frank,
Eck Juergen,
Lorenz Patrick
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
biotechnology journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.144
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1860-7314
pISSN - 1860-6768
DOI - 10.1002/biot.200600250
Subject(s) - metagenomics , computational biology , cloning (programming) , biology , toolbox , complementary dna , genomics , synthetic biology , gene , genetics , genome , computer science , programming language
Metagenomics – the application of the genomics suit of technologies to uncultivated microorganisms – is coming of age. Sophisticated technologies are being developed and adapted to this promising genetic resource to make increasing use of the seemingly boundless molecular and functional diversity. Particular progress has been made in the areas of randomly proliferating limited‐source DNA, massively parallel sequencing without cloning, isolating specific target sequences from highly complex template mixtures, high‐throughput assay systems targeting metabolic pathways, artificial transcriptional regulators activating reporter genes to indicate enzymatic substrate conversion and cDNA cloning from extracted mRNA to directly clone actively expressed genes from a microbial consortium. However, challenges still lie ahead. Most prominently, the efficient heterologous expression of a plethora of potentially interesting enzymes from unknown source organisms is not readily achieved.