PMN Release 8.0 Update

The PMN 8.0 release includes seven NEWLY created databases for several important monocots, including rice, barley, sorghum, switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), Setaria italica, Brachypodium distachyon, as well as another member of the Brassicaceae family, Brassica rapa ssp. pekinensis, also known as Chinese cabbage. 

We also have completely rebuilt databases for seven phylogenetically diverse species including moss, Selaginella, grape, cassava, and poplar and we have significantly revised and updated AraCyc, CornCyc, and ChlamyCyc. 

Our computational predictions of enzyme functions in PMN 8.0 are based on an enhanced Ensemble Enzyme Prediction Pipeline (E2P2 v.2.0) that can cover a significantly greater reaction space. And our final database construction relies upon a pathway-level Semi-Automated Validation and Integration (SAVI) refinement process. 

We also moved from using loci (e.g. At2g44990) in AraCyc 10.0 to using gene models (splice variants) (e.g.At2g44990.1) in AraCyc 11.0. For all cases in which a locus in AraCyc 10.0 only had one corresponding splice variant in AraCyc 11.0, all of the previous experimental annotations of enzyme function were transferred to the single splice variant. For loci with more than one splice variant in AraCyc 11.0, the experimental data were transferred to the "representative" gene model (splice variant). Representative gene models are selected by TAIR and typically have the longest coding region. 

PlantCyc 8.0 currently houses over 180,000 proteins and over 1000 metabolic pathways.
PlantCyc 8.0 now contains all of the enzymes present in each of the 17 species-specific databases. Earlier versions of PlantCyc only included enzymes associated with pathways from the species-specific databases. 

All of the PMN databases can now be explored using the updated 16.5 version of the Pathway Tools software.

We hope that these enhanced resources will be useful to researchers, educators, and students who want to learn more about plant metabolism!