A biochemical genomics approach for identifying genes by the activity of their products

For the identification of yeast genes specifying biochemical activities, a genomic strategy that is rapid, sensitive, and widely applicable was developed with an array of 6144 individual yeast strains, each containing a different yeast open reading frame (ORF) fused to glutathione S-transferase (GSI). For the identification of ORF-associated activities, strains were grown in defined pools, and GST-ORFs were purified. Then, pools were assayed for activities, and active pools were deconvoluted to identify the source strains. Three previously unknown ORF-associated activities were identified with this strategy: a cyclic phosphodiesterase that acts on adenosine diphosphate-ribose 1 "-2 " cyclic phosphate (Appr>p), an Appr-1 "-p-processing activity, and a cytochrome c methyltransferase.