Patent ID: 7910522

Claim:
A method for the identification or cloning of polynucleotides encoding a selected phenotype, the method comprising (i) cloning environmental DNA fragments into E. coli cloning vectors and propagating said vectors in E. coli to produce a metagenomic library in E. coli cells, (ii) identifying or selecting cloning vectors in said library which contain DNA fragments having a particular characteristic of interest, (iii) inserting a target polynucleotide construct into said identified or selected cloning vectors in a region of said identified or selected cloning vectors distinct from the DNA fragments having a particular characteristic of interest to form modified cloning vectors, wherein said target polynucleotide construct comprises a nucleic acid encoding an origin of transfer functional in E. coli and a nucleic acid encoding an integrase functional in a selected recipient host cell having a genome distinct from E. coli , thereby conferring to the modified cloning vectors the ability to be transferred into said selected recipient host cell, (iv) transferring the modified cloning vectors into said selected recipient host cell and integrating said modified cloning vectors and/or the DNA fragments having a particular characteristic of interest which they contain into the genome of said selected recipient host cell and (v) identifying or cloning the DNA fragments contained in said modified cloning vectors which encode said selected phenotype in said selected recipient host cell, wherein said selected recipient host cell is a microorganism or host cell other than E. coli.