New strategies for DNA polymerase library screening

Abstract

Engineered enzymes are of increasing importance for a plethora of biotechnical applications. Especially DNA polymerases are workhorses in biochemical technologies in particular the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), cDNA cloning procedures, genome sequencing and in diagnostic applications. DNA polymerase mutant libraries can be used for the screening of non-standard reaction conditions or substrates e.g. the efficient amplification of difficult templates like ancient DNA. We are convinced that these fascinating enzymes can be optimized and custom-made for a specific application to result in more robust and reliable systems. To our knowledge, all known screening methods for DNA polymerase mutants are focused and thus limited to the screening of a single reaction or one new function. We developed improved strategies for multiplexed DNA polymerase screening that will be presented.