MAPPS: A Web-Based Tool for Metabolic Pathway Prediction and Network Analysis in the Postgenomic Era

Comparative and evolutionary analyses of metabolic networks have a wide range of applications, ranging from research into metabolic evolution through to practical applications in drug development, synthetic biology, and biodegradation. We present MAPPS: Metabolic network Analysis and Pathway Prediction Server (https://mapps.lums.edu .pk), a web-based tool to study functions and evolution of metabolic networks using traditional and 'omits data sets. MAPPS provides diverse functionalities including an interactive interface, graphical visualization of results, pathway prediction and network comparison, identification of potential drug targets, in silico metabolic engineering, host- microbe interactions, and ancestral network building. Importantly, MAPPS also allows users to upload custom data, thus enabling metabolic analyses on draft and custom genomes, and has an 'omits pipeline to filter pathway results, making it relevant in today's postgenomic era.