KEGG for characterizing genomes and pathways in the biosphere.

KEGG mapping uses KO-based molecular networks to characterize biosphere data objects, and similarity dendrograms from KO or module compositions can be compared with phylogenetic trees.

• Why it matters: The work addresses how to organize and reuse cellular and organism-level functional knowledge to generate new insights and practical applications across diverse biological systems.
• What they did: It develops KEGG as a model using KO orthologs and generic pathway maps/modules with KOs as network nodes, enabling genome-to-pathway mapping for any organism.
• The result: By characterizing organisms, groups, microbiomes, viruses, and host–microbe combinations, and introducing KO- or module-composition similarity, the method yields dendrograms that possibly reflect metabolic or cellular functional similarity.