title: Biocatalysts and small molecule products from metagenomic studies.
abstract: The vast majority of bacteria present in environmental samples have never been cultured and therefore have not been exploited for the ability to produce useful biocatalysts or collections of biocatalysts generating interesting small molecules. Metagenomic libraries constructed using DNA extracted directly from natural bacterial communities offer access to the genetic information present in the genomes of these as yet uncultured bacteria. This review highlights recent efforts to recover both discrete enzymes and small molecules from metagenomic libraries.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, United States.
authors.forename: Hala A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Iqbal
authors.forename: Zhiyang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Sean F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Brady
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D055162:Biocatalysis; D001688:Biological Products / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D016678:Genome; D006801:Humans; D056186:Metagenomics
chemical_list: D001688:Biological Products