The Minimum Information About A Biosynthetic Gene Cluster Standard as a Means of Organizing Bioinformatic Data

Therapeutic agents play an increasingly large role in our daily lives, and it is important to study the source of these powerful chemical compounds. Biosynthetic gene clusters found in a diverse set of organisms are capable of manufacturing structurally complex organic compounds in a systematic way, by expressing suites of a enzymes to build the natural products. There is a growing need for a centralized database to connect data for related genes, enzymes, and compounds. This information is currently stored in a siloed fashion, across several repositories, creating an obstacle for modern researchers. The Minimum Information about a Biosynthetic Gene cluster (MIBiG) database aims to solve this problem by utilizing user-inputted data to translate scientific discoveries into a format that can be analyzed computationally to connect genes to chemistry, understand biosynthetic gene clusters in the context of environmental diversity, and develop computer-generated gene cluster engineering. As an effort to make MiBIG more accessible to an expanding scientific community, we developed a workflow, Excel templates, a tutorial video, a collection of review literature, and educational tools to facilitate the entry process have all been developed. To verify the effectiveness of the protocol and associated resources, MIBiG was deployed as a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) in an upper-level undergraduate course.