Considering the fact that only small portion of bacterial species are culturable, the metagenome sequences derived from environmental samples harbour yet to be discovered insights. With the emergence of next-generation sequencing technologies the metagenomic studies has been accelerated. Not only 16S rRNA but also whole metagenome extracted from an environmental sample is subjected to analysis. Such a depth in analysis allows multiple sequence comparisons for a selected gene across metagenomes.
In this study, we used publicly available whole metagenome sequencing data from which sequences for industrial enzymes were extracted and subjected to multiple sequence alignment. The sequence differences for a given enzyme were overlaid on top of three dimensional structure of that enzyme.
Our method reveals the amino acid residue changes at certain locations in select enzymes. The sequence changes we have identified are novel and has not been described in bacterial enzyme databases.
Such an approach has potential to pave the way for better understanding of enzyme structure and protein engineering implications.