CARR researchers developed a metagenomics-based procedure for mining novel metal-resistance genes from environmental DNA----Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics？and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

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CARR researchers developed a metagenomics-based procedure for mining novel metal-resistance genes from environmental DNA

2020-03-10

Metallothioneins are similar in metal-binding properties but diverse in evolution. Currently, only a limited number of prokaryotic metallothioneins have been explored due to the methodological challenges. A study by Li et al. (AEM.02907-19) identified 27 novel metallothionein genes from soil microbiome with one of which increased the host's cadmium sorption by 13.7 folds. The discovery of novel metallothionein genes in a high-throughput manner was realized by a metagenomics-guided procedure, which combines diversity loss, metagenomic mining, evolutionary trace analysis, DNA chemical synthesis, and functional genomic validation. This procedure successfully overcomes the difficulties from the conventional stress-screening and PCR-based functional metagenomics.

Publication link: https://aem.asm.org/content/early/2020/02/24/AEM.02907-19