Figure 7
Gene discovery flowchart. The search for novel biocatalysts begins with the enrichment of environmental samples. This may be culture, genome, or gene enrichment, and serves to narrow the library size for effective screening. After nucleic acid extraction (DNA or RNA), several avenues are available for gene and enzyme discovery. These can include construction of a metagenomic library followed by functional screening, microarray analysis, or sequence-based assays. Final expression requires full-length gene expression in a heterologous host.