[citation needed] At its inception, SCOPE was developed as a homology-independent recombination technique to enable the creation of multiple crossover libraries from distantly related genes.
To create the corresponding library of genes, the breeding scheme of Gregor Mendel was adapted into a PCR strategy to selectively cross hybrid genes, a process of iterative inbreeding to create all possible combinations of coding segments with variable linkages.
Genetic complementation in temperature-sensitive E. coli was used as the selection system to successfully identify functional hybrid DNA polymerases of minimal architecture with enhanced phenotypes.
The rapid evolvability of chemical diversity in terpene synthases were demonstrated through processes akin to both Darwinian gradualism and saltation: some mutational pathways show steady, additive changes, whereas others show drastic jumps between contrasting product specificities with single mutational steps.
These examples establish SCOPE as a standardized method for the construction of synthetic gene libraries from close or distantly related parental sequences to identify functional novelty among the encoded proteins.