Finding conserved and non-conserved reactions using a metabolic pathway alignment algorithm.

Using a metabolic pathway alignment method we developed, we studied highly conserved reactions in different groups of organisms and found out that biological functions vital for each of the groups are effectively expressed in the set of conserved reactions. We also studied the metabolic alignment of different strains of three bacteria and found out several non-conserved reactions. We suggest that these reactions could be either misannotations or reactions with a relevant but yet to be specified biological role, and should therefore be further investigated.