Patent ID: 6277638
Filing Date: 2001-08-21
Classification: C07K,C12N,C12Q,C12Y,C40B

Abstract:
A method of evolving a polynucleotide toward a desired functional property comprising:(a) providing a plurality of polynucleotides comprising two or more species variants;(b) shuffling said plurality of polynucleotides to form a population of recombinant polynucleotides;(c) selecting or screening said population of recombinant polynucleotides for recombinant polynucleotides that have evolved toward the desired functional property,(d) repeating steps (b) and (c) with the plurality of polynucleotides in step (b) comprising the recombinant polynucleotides selected or screened in step (c) until a recombinant polynucleotide is obtained which has acquired the desired functional property, wherein at least one shuffling cycle comprises conducting a mult-cyclic polynucleotide extension process on partially annealed polynucleotide strands having sequences from the plurality of polynucleotides, the plurality of polynucleotides having regions of similarity and regions of heterology with each other and the partially annealed polynucleotide strands being partially annealed through the regions of similarity, under conditions whereby one strand serves as a template for extension of another strand with which it is partially annealed to generate said recombinant polynucleotides.