title: Constructing and Screening a Metagenomic Library of a Cold and Alkaline Extreme Environment.
abstract: Natural cold or alkaline environments are common on Earth. A rare combination of these two extremes is found in the permanently cold (less than 6 °C) and alkaline (pH above 10) ikaite columns in the Ikka Fjord in Southern Greenland. Bioprospecting efforts have established the ikaite columns as a source of bacteria and enzymes adapted to these conditions. They have also highlighted the limitations of cultivation-based methods in this extreme environment and metagenomic approaches may provide access to novel extremophilic enzymes from the uncultured majority of bacteria. Here, we describe the construction and screening of a metagenomic library of the prokaryotic community inhabiting the ikaite columns.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Thorvaldsensvej 40, 1871, Frederiksberg, Denmark.
authors.forename: Mikkel A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Glaring
authors.affiliation: Novozymes A/S, Bagsværd, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jan K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Vester
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Thorvaldsensvej 40, 1871, Frederiksberg, Denmark. psg@plen.ku.dk.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stougaard
mesh_terms: D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D000071251:Extreme Environments; D015723:Gene Library; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D006116:Greenland; D054892:Metagenome; D056186:Metagenomics / Q000379:methods
keywords: Biotechnology; Cell extraction; Extreme environments; Extremophilic enzymes; Function-based screen; Metagenome