| Abstract
| - We have developed a system to predict microbial catabolism, using the University of Minnesota Biocatalysis/Biodegradation Database (UM-BBD, http://umbbd.ahc.umn.edu/) as a knowledge base. The present system,available on the Web (http://umbbd.ahc.umn.edu/predict/), can predict biodegradation of most of the majoraliphatic and aromatic organic functional groups containing C, H, N, O, and halogens. It can duplicate atleast one known biodegradation pathway for 60% of the compounds in a 84-member validation set; mostpathways that did not completely duplicate known metabolism could plausibly occur in nature. Users areencouraged, and have begun, to submit additional biotransformation rules and comment on existing rules;the system will further develop under the direction of the scientific community.
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