Discovery of New Glycosidases From Metagenomic Libraries

Microorganisms routinely perform complex enzymatic transformations of natural material; thus, their enzymes have the potential to tackle medical and industrial challenges. However, a vast number of microbes are recalcitrant to cultivation. Functional screening of environmental DNA allows us to tap into the seemingly boundless diversity of enzymes encoded by microbial populations. In this chapter, we describe methods for the isolation of environmental DNA, generation of metagenomic libraries, and the functional screening of these libraries for new glycosidases.