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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Dec 20.
Published in final edited form as: Methods Mol Biol. 2013;978:73–92. doi: 10.1007/978-1-62703-293-3_6

Table 1.

Comparison of in vitro technologies discussed in this review.

Method Genotype-phenotype link Reported variants in single experiment Results
Ribosome display Non-covalent complex of mRNA-ribosome-protein ~1013 Proof of concept selections for sialyltransferase [10], beta-lactamase [11], dihydrofolate reductase [12], DNA ligase [13] and sortase [14]
mRNA display Covalent fusions of mRNA-protein via puromycin ~1013 Selection for de novo RNA ligase [15,16]
DNA display Covalent or non-covalent complex of DNA-protein ~1012 Proof of concept selection of binders, but no enzymes [17,18]
In vitro compartmentalization (IVC) Spatial confinement ~109 (selection)
~106–108 (screening by FACS/microfluidics)		 Selection for methyltransferase [19] and restriction nuclease [20];
Proof of concept screening for β–galactosidase [21,22]
IVC & microbead display Non-covalent complex of DNA-microbead-protein ~109 (selection)
~106–108 (screening by FACS/microfluidics)		 Screening for phosphotriesterase [23];
Proof of concept screening for hydrogenase [24];
Proof of concept selection of biotin ligase [25]
IVC & DNA display Covalent or non-covalent complex of DNA-protein ~108–109
 Selection of antibodies as heterodimers, but no enzymes [26]