Recent Progress and Application of KEGG Database in the Research of Bioinformatics

Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG) is a database resource that integrates genomic,chemical and systemic functional information,which provides genomes and their relationships to biological systems as well as their interactions with the environment.It is a platform for bioinformatics researches.KEGG is categorized in terms of building blocks in the genomic space,known as KEGG GENES,the chemical space,KEGG LIGAND,writing diagrams of interaction and reaction networks,KEGG PATHWAY.It manually constructs a function knowledge system which contains KEGG Pathway map,BRITE functional hierarchies and KEGG Modules.Then it constructs KEGG Orthology which contacts genomes with molecular network.KEGG BRITE contains KEGG Orthology.This paper mainly introduces the latest progress of KEGG database and its application in Bioinformatics.The Pathway map and KO of KEGG database provide fruitful information on the metabolic reconstruction and the metabolic network analysis among different networks.It introduces KEGG and its functions for genomic analyses,focusing on the usage of the KEGG GENES,PATHWAY,BRITE and Mapper.In the Disease Database,each disease is represented by a list of known genes,any known environmental factors at the molecular level,diagnostic markers and therapeutic drugs,which may reflect the underlying molecular system.The Disease and Drug Database can be used as a reference base for computational analysis of molecular networks.The metabolic network can be reconstructed by using the KEGG database.KEGG database will be more and more widely used in the fields of biosynthesis and drug design.