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About KEGG

KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) is a database resource that integrates genomic, chemical, and systemic functional information. In particular, gene catalogs in the completely sequenced genomes are linked to higher-level systemic functions of the cell, the organism, and the ecosystem.

Major efforts have been undertaken to manually create a knowledge base for such systemic functions by capturing and summarizing experimental knowledge in computable forms; namely, in the forms of molecular networks called KEGG pathway maps, BRITE functional hierarchies, and KEGG modules. Continuous efforts have also been made to develop and improve the cross-species (ortholog-based) annotation procedure for linking genomes to the molecular networks.

As the result, KEGG is widely used as a reference knowledge base for integration and interpretation of large-scale datasets generated by genome sequencing and other high-throughput experimental technologies. Reference (for background and basic concepts of KEGG):
Kanehisa, M.; "Post-genome Informatics", Oxford University Press (2000). [Preface] [Table of Contents]
Kanehisa Laboratories Pathway Solutions Bioinfomatics Center