There is a great amount of genetic information in the environment. To explore that genetic information can mean the discovery of new drugs like antibiotics; new enzymes for the production of biodegradable fuels, for the enhancement of industrial processes or for the bioremediation of contaminated sites. Direct and indirect approaches have been used to search for those unknown genes in the environment. An indirect approach can be the use of metagenomic library construction. Estimates say that 99% of the microorganisms in the environment are unknown because of the inability of growing them in the laboratory. Metagenomic is a molecular instrument where you extract genes from environmental samples (water or soil) and clone them in a host cell to test the capabilities of the host cell to express the information contained in the unknown gene inserted. Examples of test of interest can be to grow the microorganism in a minimal media with a carbon source to find new enzymes that degrade compounds of interest (ex. cellulose; lignin alkali; glycerol as carbon source) or to test if the host cell new genomic insert confers the cell a new ability like to grow in the presence of antibiotics or toxic compounds (ex. heavy metals, tellurium). A direct approach can still be the used. The use of minimal media with the addition of a carbon source is the instrument of preference for this. In this minimal media you have all the vitamins and salts required for the microorganism growth and also a carbon source that the microbe will metabolize to produce energy. If a microorganism grows in a minimal media that means that the microbe is capable of metabolize the carbon source and that implies that the microbe has the “genetic machinery” to do the task, to degrade and metabolize the compound used as carbon source. In Dr. Patricia Ortiz laboratory in Chemical Engineering department and in Dr. Carlos Rios laboratory in Biology department in the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez Campus we deal with both techniques. results using the direct approach have given us more than 40 unknown organisms that grew on minimal media in the presence of different carbon sources. Environmental samples where taken from a coffee plantation on “Hacienda San Pedro; Jayuya Puerto Rico”. Those samples where processed with M9 minimal media with the addition of a carbon source (Caffeine, Cellulose, Lignin Alkali and Veratryl Alcohol); and we found organisms that grew on the minimal media and we have now a collection of unknowns. The next step will be to use molecular techniques to identify the organisms.