Novel enzymes for amino acid biosynthesis in diverse bacteria and archaea: GapMind 2026.

GapMind-enabled pathway completion in 208 minimal-media–growing prokaryotes cuts unexplained amino-acid biosynthesis gaps from 1.4 to 0.7 per genome.

• Why it matters: Missing steps in amino-acid biosynthesis annotations limit accurate pathway reconstruction across bacterial and archaeal genomes, especially when genome content varies.
• What they did: The team used GapMind to find pathway gaps, then applied comparative genomics and high-throughput genetics to propose candidate genes, confirming ten enzymes via cross-species complementation.
• The result: Adding enzymes including a glycine route via glyoxylate and alternative phosphoserine phosphatase and deacetylase families updates GapMind and reduces remaining gaps, with most involving phosphate-group gain or loss.

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