At Novozymes we respect our long tradition. But when it comes to producing the best enzyme products and getting them on the market first, we use all the state-of-the-art techniques modern biotechnology can offer. This is especially true of the hunt for genes that code for useful enzymes or other proteins.
The production of an enzyme in a cell is a complicated process involving many steps and intermediate stages. When we clone a new enzyme, the basis is always the gene that codes for the enzyme or a thorough investigation and characterization of the enzyme for which a gene codes. However, the gene and the finished enzyme are rarely directly linked. If you know the structure of an enzyme, you cannot simply deduce the sequence of the corresponding gene, and vice versa. Information on the intermediate stages from gene to enzyme is therefore essential if you want to clone an efficient gene for use in industrial production.
Normally you have to perform a series of assays and purification processes to reveal the intermediate stages from gene to enzyme. But with the introduction of molecular screening to the enzyme business Novozymes has implemented a powerful, new tool to dispense with the need for this time-consuming and costly process.
Molecular screening uses the information on known enzyme genes to clone related genes from other organisms. By comparing the structure of the genes, our researchers can make a ?molecular hook? that can attach to genes in other organisms that looks like the known, beneficial genes. These so-called primers can be used to amplify and sequence a fragment of a homologous gene from a sample of new DNA. Using this method, a number of genes that resembles the initial gene can be identified relatively quickly.
Novozymes has developed great expertise in the use of these new technologies. Using molecular
screening, our researchers extremely quickly succeeded in
cloning 32
cellulase genes representing all four major types of
fungi based on only four homologous gene sequences known at the start of the project.
The use of DNA microarrays in genetic screening makes it possible to detect genes that microorganisms turn on under certain physiological conditions. When a strain of microorganisms is grown on a new substrate, hidden genes involved in utilizing that substrate are often turned on. These genes may code for new enzymes that could be beneficial to man. By carefully analyzing the process, our researchers can detect the new genes and test whether they can be useful for industrial applications.