Rhea, the reaction knowledgebase in 2022

Area of Science:

• Biochemistry and Bioinformatics
• Molecular Biology
• Systems Biology

Background:

• Rhea is an expert-curated knowledgebase of biochemical reactions.
• It is based on the Chemical Entities of Biological Interest (ChEBI) ontology.
• The last report on Rhea was published in 2019.

Purpose of the Study:

• To report key developments in the Rhea knowledgebase since 2019.
• To highlight improvements in reaction coverage and resource integration.
• To demonstrate the enhanced utility of Rhea for biological research.

Main Methods:

• Expert curation of biochemical reactions.
• Integration with chemical ontologies (ChEBI).
• Adoption as a reference vocabulary by UniProtKB.

Main Results:

• Significant improvements in Rhea's reaction coverage.
• Rhea is now the reference vocabulary for enzyme annotation in UniProtKB.
• A new Rhea website has been developed.
• Rhea has been designated an ELIXIR Core Data Resource.

Conclusions:

• Recent developments enhance Rhea's utility as a reference resource.
• Rhea supports the study and engineering of enzymes and metabolic systems.
• The integration and accessibility of Rhea have been significantly improved.