The Plant Metabolic Network (PMN) is a collaborative project among databases and biochemists with a common goal to build a broad network of plant metabolic pathway databases. A central feature of the PMN is PlantCyc, a comprehensive plant biochemical pathway database, containing curated information from the literature and computational analyses about the genes, enzymes, compounds, reactions, and pathways involved in primary and secondary metabolism.

PMN is funded by the National Science Foundation (Grant #: 0640769), governed by an Editorial Board composed of internationally renowned scientists, and executed at the Carnegie Institution for Science, Department of Plant Biology.

PlantCyc provides access to manually curated or reviewed information about shared and unique metabolic pathways present in over 250 plant species.

AraCyc provides access to manually curated or reviewed information about metabolic pathways for the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The pathways may be unique to Arabidopsis or shared with other organisms.

Data from gene expression, proteomic, and metabolomic experiments in Arabidopsis can be overlaid on a metabolic pathway map using the OMICS Viewer.

PoplarCyc provides access to manually curated or reviewed information about metabolic pathways for the model tree Populus trichocarpa and a few other related Populus species and hybrids. The pathways may be unique to poplar or shared with other organisms.

Data from gene expression, proteomic, and metabolomic experiments in poplar can be overlaid on a metabolic pathway map using the OMICS Viewer.

• The PMN pathway databases were created using, and are powered by, the Pathway Tools software developed by Peter Karp and coworkers at SRI International.

External Plant Metabolic Databases

Several additional species-specific databases, generated by PMN collaborators, are maintained and hosted at external sites. Some of the data from these databases have been incorporated into PlantCyc. Please click on the links below to access those databases directly, and read our Release Notes to learn about the content from external databases included in PlantCyc.

• CapCyc (Pepper) (Capsicum anuum)
• CoffeaCyc (Coffee) (Coffea canephora)
• LycoCyc (Tomato) (Solanum lycopersicum)
• MedicCyc (Medicago) (Medicago truncatula)
• NicotianaCyc (Tobacco) (Nicotiana tabacum)
• PetuniaCyc (Petunia) (Petunia hybrida)
• PotatoCyc (Potato) (Solanum tuberosum)
• RiceCyc (Rice) (Oryza sativa japonica Nipponbare)
• SolaCyc (Eggplant) (Solanum melongena)
• SorghumCyc (Sorghum) (Sorghum bicolor BTx623)

PlantMetabolomics.org is a data repository for a series of metabolomic experiments performed in Arabidopis thaliana

The PMN has several pathways for the biosynthesis of lovely floral fragrance compounds including:

• valencene from Vitis vinifera


• geranyl acetate from Rosa hybrida


• linalool from many species

So, even if spring hasn't sprung in your neighborhood recently, you can catch an early whiff of it by searching in PlantCyc.