Patent Document ID: 20020025517
Application ID: 09188777
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method of evolving a biocatalytic activity of a cell, comprising: (a) recombining at least a first and second DNA segment from at least one gene conferring ability to catalyze a reaction of interest, the segments differing from each other in at least two nucleotides, to produce a library of recombinant genes; (b) screening at least one recombinant gene from the library that confers enhanced ability to catalyze the reaction of interest by the cell relative to a wildtype form of the gene; (c) recombining at least a segment from the at least one recombinant gene with a further DNA segment from the at least one gene, the same or different from the first and second segments, to produce a further library of recombinant genes; (d) screening at least one further recombinant gene from the further library of recombinant genes that confers enhanced ability to catalyze the reaction of interest by the cell relative to a previous recombinant gene; (e) repeating (c) and (d), as necessary, until the further recombinant gene confers a desired level of enhanced ability to catalyze the reaction of interest by the cell.