Metagenomics approach has been developed to identify and select microbial genes synthesizing novel molecules.
This approach directly utilizes the large number of microbial genomes present in an environmental niche, for example in soil, in water such as ocean or in human gut. These genomes are contributed by both the culturable and the nonculturable variety of microbes and together constitute what has been termed as metagenome.
The collective DNA is extracted from a sample of soil, water or any other environmental niche. It is subjected to restriction digestion using restriction endonucleases and the fragments are cloned into suitable vectors. The clones are then screened for presence of a variety of molecules. The clones expressing novel molecules or molecules with improved characteristics are used for large-scale production by fermentation techniques.
Metagenomics approach has been developed to identify and select microbial genes synthesizing novel molecules.
