Patent ID: 7629170

Claim:
A method of evolving a cell to acquire a desired function, comprising: (i) introducing a library of DNA fragments into a plurality of cells, whereby at least one of the fragments undergoes recombination with a segment in the genome or an episome of the cells to produce modified cells and, recombining a plurality of nucleic acids from the modified cells to produce additionally modified cells which additionally modified cells comprise more diverse DNA than the modified cells; (ii) screening the additionally modified cells for cells that have evolved toward acquisition of the desired function; (iii) recombining DNA from the additionally modified cells that have evolved toward the desired function with a further library of DNA fragments, at least one of which undergoes recombination with a segment in the genome or the episome of the additionally modified cells to produce further modified cells, or recombining DNA between the additionally modified cells that have evolved toward the desired function to produce further modified cells; (iv) screening the further modified cells for cells that have further evolved toward acquisition of the desired function; (v) repeating (iii) and (iv) as required until the further modified cells have acquired the desired function.