Representing metabolic pathway information: an object-oriented approach

Motivation: The University of Minnesota Biocatalysis/ Biodegradation Databa se (UM-BBD) is a website providing information and dynamic links for microb ial metabolic pathways, enzyme reactions, and their substrates and products . The Compound, Organism, Reaction and Enzyme (CORE) object-oriented databa se management system was developed to contain and serve this information. Results: CORE was developed using Java, an object-oriented programming lang uage, and PSE persistent object classes from Object Design, Inc. CORE dynam ically generates descriptive web pages for reactions, compounds and enzymes , and reconstructs ad hoc pathway maps starting from any UM-BBD reaction.