A new open-access database is helping scientists unlock the secrets of how microorganisms produce complex molecules with powerful biological properties.
Bluetools researchers have contributed to the development of MITE — the Minimum Information about a Tailoring Enzyme Database. The resource is freely available here.
Many microorganisms produce specialised metabolites: small molecules with strong biological activities widely used in medicine and industry. Their biosynthesis involves tailoring enzymes, which modify an initial molecular scaffold to define the final structure and biological activity of the molecule.
Until now, information about these enzymes was scattered across thousands of scientific articles. MITE fills that gap. It collects experimental data on tailoring enzymes and encodes their reactions using a chemical pattern language called reaction SMARTS, making the data both human and machine readable.
The database integrates with established resources including UniProt, NCBI GenBank, MIBiG, and the genome mining tool antiSMASH. It supports pathway annotation, synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, and drug discovery.
MITE is community driven, open access, and free to use.
The study was published in Nucleic Acids Research on 26 September 2025 by Adriano Rutz et al.