A major update to a key scientific database will boost research on natural products.
Researchers have released version 4.0 of the MIBiG database. It collects data on biosynthetic gene clusters, which drive the production of specialised metabolites in microbes. These molecules play an important role in medicine, agriculture and biotechnology.
The new version adds over 500 entries and updates many more. MIBiG now includes more than 3000 curated records. An international research community led this effort. Over 250 contributors improved data quality through coordinated annotation and review.
New tools support standardised data entry and validation. This makes the database more reliable and easier to use for genome mining and machine learning. MIBiG 4.0 also introduces a more flexible update model. Future releases will allow continuous contributions from the community.
The study was published in 2024 in Nucleic Acids Research and highlights strong international collaboration.
Read the full study here.