Abstract:Abstract: Esterases are widely used in industry because they can catalyze various reactions such as ester hydrolysis and synthesis, peptide synthesis, lactone synthesis, and transesterification. It is particularly important to develop esterases with special properties such as high activity, salt, alkali, acid and high temperature resistance. Esterases from extreme environmental microorganisms often have these special properties. The traditional ways of obtaining esterase genes from environments mainly rely on pure culture of microorganisms and sequencing technology based on single bacterial cells. However, less than 1% of microbes in nature can be cultivated, which greatly limits the development of esterases. Metagenomics can overcome the limitations of microbe isolation and culture, providing more possibilities for development of esterases and other genetic resources. However, this approach also faces many challenges and problems.