Eukaryotic microorganisms from diverse environments encompass a large number of taxa, many of them still unknown to science. One strategy to mine these organisms for genes of biotechnological relevance is to use a pool of eukaryotic mRNA directly extracted from environmental samples. Recent reports demonstrate that the resulting metatranscriptomic cDNA libraries can be screened by expression in yeast for a wide range of genes and functions from many of the different eukaryotic taxa. In combination with novel emerging high-throughput technologies, we anticipate that this approach should contribute to exploring the functional diversity of the eukaryotic microbiota.

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从环境中发现蛋白质编码基因：真核生物的时间到了？

来自不同环境的真核微生物包含大量的分类单元，其中许多仍然是科学所未知的。为生物技术相关的基因挖掘这些生物的一种策略是使用从环境样品中直接提取的真核mRNA池。最近的报道表明，可以通过在酵母中表达筛选来自许多不同的真核生物类群的广泛基因和功能来筛选所得的转录组cDNA文库。结合新兴的高通量新兴技术，我们预计该方法应有助于探索真核微生物群的功能多样性。