宏基因组技术在极端环境酯酶挖掘中的应用

Metagenomics Applied to Extreme Environment Esterase Mining

酯酶(esterase)可以催化酯水解和合成、多肽合成、内酯合成、酯交换等多种反应,在工业领域被广泛应用,故开发具有高活力、耐盐、耐碱、耐酸、耐高温等特殊性质的酯酶具有重要意义,而来自于极端环境微生物的酯酶往往具有这些特殊的性质。从环境中获得酯酶基因的传统方式主要依赖于微生物的纯培养和基于单菌的测序技术,但是自然界中可培养的微生物不足1%,很大程度上限制了酯酶资源的开发。宏基因组技术克服了传统分离培养技术的局限性,为酯酶及其他基因资源的开发和利用提供了更多可能,同时也面临着诸多挑战和亟待解决的问题。

Esterases are widely used in industry because they can catalyze various reactions such as ester hydrolysis and synthesis,peptide synthesis,lactone synthesis,and transesterification.It is particularly important to develop esterases with special properties such as high activity,salt,alkali,acid and high temperature resistance.Esterases from extreme environmental microorganisms often have these special properties.The traditional ways of obtaining esterase genes from environments mainly rely on pure culture of microorganisms and sequencing technology based on single bacterial cells.However,less than 1%of microbes in nature can be cultivated,which greatly limits the development of esterases.Metagenomics can overcome the limitations of microbe isolation and culture,providing more possibilities for development of esterases and other genetic resources.However,this approach also faces many challenges and problems.