Abstract: The provides methods for generating divergent libraries of recombinant chimeric proteins, comprising identifying a plurality of conserved amino acid sequences, selecting a plurality of consensus amino acid sequences as a backbone corresponding to said conserved amino acid sequences to serve as sites of recombination and as a backbone for recombinant chimeric proteins created, generating overlapping polynucleotides, inducing recombination between said polynucleotides to produce divergent libraries of chimeric polynucleotides wherein the recombinations intentionally take place between the sequences that correspond to the full length consensus amino acids. The advantage is that shuffling between variable regions, while maintaining the consensus backbone, increases the production of active proteins with high diversity, and better properties.

Abstract: The present invention relates to libraries comprising recombinant chimeric proteins, each protein comprising a plurality of distinct consensus amino acid sequences corresponding to amino acid regions that are conserved in a plurality of functionally and/or structurally related proteins. The present invention further relates to methods for preparing the recombinant chimeric proteins and uses thereof, that are less expensive, less labor-intensive and more efficient than procedures used in current available methods. The advantage of the present invention is that shuffling between variable regions that are not necessarily predetermined, while maintaining the consensus backbone, increases the production of active enzymes while producing enzyme variants with high diversity, and better properties.