Use of metagenomic approaches to isolate lipolytic genes from activated sludge

The aims of this study were to access the bacterial diversity and isolate lipolytic genes using the metagenomic approach in activated sludge of a swine wastewater treatment facility. On the basis of BLASTN analysis of 16S rRNA gene clones, most of these communities (90%) were of uncultivated bacteria. The metagenomic library was constructed using a plasmid vector and DNA extracted directly from activated sludge samples. The average insert size was approximately 5.1 kb. A total of 12 unique and lipolytic clones were obtained using the tributyrin plate assay. The rate of discovering a lipolytic clone in this study was as high as 0.31%. Molecular analysis revealed that most of the 16 putative lipolytic enzymes showed 28–55% identity with non-redundant protein sequences in the database. Briefly, this study demonstrates that activated sludge is an ideal bioresource for isolating new lipolytic enzymes.