Mining metagenomes for novel cellulase genes
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Updated: Jun 10, 2026
A High Throughput Screen for Biomining Cellulase Activity from Metagenomic Libraries
Published on: February 1, 2011
1Guangxi Key Laboratory of Subtropical Bioresource Conservation and Utilization, Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Microbial and Plant Genetic Engineering, and College of Life Science and Technology, Guangxi University, 100 Daxue Road, Nanning, Guangxi, 530004, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Cellulases hydrolyze the β-1,4 linkages of cellulose and are widely used in food, brewing and wine, animal feed, textiles and laundry, and pulp and paper industries, especially for hydrolyzing cellulosic materials into sugars, which can be fermented to produce useful products such as ethanol. Metagenomics has become an alternative approach to conventional culture-dependent methods as it allows exhaustive mining of microbial genomes in their natural environments. This review covers the current state of research and challenges in mining novel cellulase genes from the metagenomes of various environments, and discusses the potential biotechnological applications of metagenome-derived cellulases.
