Microbial pathway prediction: a functional group approach.

We have developed a system to predict microbial catabolism, using the University of Minnesota Biocatalysis/Biodegradation Database (UM-BBD, http://umbbd.ahc.umn.edu/) as a knowledge base. The present system, available on the Web (http://umbbd.ahc.umn.edu/predict/), can predict biodegradation of most of the major aliphatic and aromatic organic functional groups containing C, H, N, O, and halogens. It can duplicate at least one known biodegradation pathway for 60% of the compounds in a 84-member validation set; most pathways that did not completely duplicate known metabolism could plausibly occur in nature. Users are encouraged, and have begun, to submit additional biotransformation rules and comment on existing rules; the system will further develop under the direction of the scientific community.