Introduction to the ARM database: Database on chemical transformations in metabolism for tracing pathways

Abstract

6. Conclusion: The ARM database provides a unique function to digitize the atom-to-atom correspondences between metabolites in identified biochemical reactions. Currently, no other metabolic database can trace biochemical pathways at the atomic scale. The technique used can be extended to other pathway searches in which molecular structures are stepwise transformed. Such an application includes the design of bio-processes for useful materials such as amino acids or plastics. In the train network, the primary criterion to select a route is the distance (i.e., shortest paths are chosen). In the evolutionary process of metabolic networks, however, it seems that this criterion has not been much exercised: not a few metabolic pathways include redundant steps and are not optimized in terms of length or robustness. The systems biology on metabolic networks is still at its earliest stage, and will become more important in future biological research.