Perspectives for Novel Enzyme Discovery from Marine Environments through Genome Mining and Metagenomics

Marine organisms have the ability of producing enzymes with unique properties compared to those of the same enzymes from terrestrial organisms. Metagenomics, the culture-independent cloning of environmental DNA that are isolated directly from an environmental sample, has already provided a wealth of information about the uncultured microbial world. It has also facilitated the discovery of novel marine biocatalysts by allowing researchers to probe directly into a huge diversity of enzymes within natural microbial communities. Recent advances in these studies have led to a great interest in recruiting microbial enzymes for the development of environmentally friendly industries. Metagenomics has proven to be a new field of research by elucidating uncultured microbes which represent the vast majority of organisms in marine environment. The science of metagenomics makes it possible to investigate resources for the development of novel enzymes for use in biotechnology. This technique has emerged as an alternative approach to conventional microbial screening that allows meticulous screening of microbial genomes in marine environments. Metagenomic libraries are, indeed, essential tools for the discovery of novel enzymatic activities, facilitating genetic tracking for innovative biotechnological applications of interest. Although the metagenomics approach has many limitations, it is expected to provide not only scientific insights but also economic benefits, especially in industry. This review highlights the importance of genome-mining microbial enzymes, by using high-throughput techniques. In addition, we discussed challenges in the metagenomics as an important part of bioinformatics analysis. In this review, we focus on the recent advances in discovering enzymes from marine microbes and their biotechnological relevance.