AUTHOR=Elfmann Christoph , Zhu Bingyao , Pedreira Tiago , Hoßbach Ben , Lluch-Senar Maria , Serrano Luis , Stülke Jörg 

TITLE=MycoWiki: Functional annotation of the minimal model organism Mycoplasma pneumoniae

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.935066

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2022.935066

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>The human pathogen <italic>Mycoplasma pneumoniae</italic> is viable independently from host cells or organisms, despite its strongly reduced genome with only about 700 protein-coding genes. The investigation of <italic>M. pneumoniae</italic> can therefore help to obtain general insights concerning the basic requirements for cellular life. Accordingly, <italic>M. pneumoniae</italic> has become a model organism for systems biology in the past decade. To support the investigation of the components of this minimal bacterium, we have generated the database <italic>Myco</italic>Wiki. (<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://mycowiki.uni-goettingen.de" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">http://mycowiki.uni-goettingen.de</ext-link>) <italic>Myco</italic>Wiki organizes data under a relational database and provides access to curated and state-of-the-art information on the genes and proteins of <italic>M. pneumoniae</italic>. Interestingly, <italic>M. pneumoniae</italic> has undergone an evolution that resulted in the limited similarity of many proteins to proteins of model organisms. To facilitate the analysis of the functions of <italic>M. pneumoniae</italic> proteins, we have integrated structure predictions from the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database for most proteins, structural information resulting from <italic>in vivo</italic> cross-linking, and protein-protein interactions based on a global <italic>in vivo</italic> study. <italic>Myco</italic>Wiki is an important tool for the systems and synthetic biology community that will support the comprehensive understanding of a minimal organism and the functional annotation of so far uncharacterized proteins.</p>