Definitions
β-glucuronidases: Enzymes belonging to glycoside hydrolase family 2 that catalyze the cleavage of β-d-glucuronic acid residues from a range of different compounds.
Functional metagenomics: Screening of metagenomic DNA cloned into heterologous hosts for the expression of specific functions.
Sequence-based metagenomics/metagenomic sequence mining: In silico analysis of metagenomic sequence libraries for the presence of genes with sequence similarity to known genes.
Degenerate PCR: Usage of a mixture of similar PCR primers designed to amplify the same gene from different organisms, by targeting highly conserved gene regions.
Introduction
Intestinal β-glucuronidases (EC 3.2.1.31) are among the major enzyme families associated with chemical detoxification (Fig. 1). They catalyze the hydrolysis of β-glucuronides naturally present in the human diet, in drugs, or those produced in the liver by glucuronidation via UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (EC 2.4.1.17), which is the major...
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Louis, P., Doré, J. (2015). Functional Metagenomics of Human Intestinal Microbiome β-Glucuronidase Activity. In: Nelson, K.E. (eds) Encyclopedia of Metagenomics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7478-5_749
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7478-5_749
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