ActDES- a Curated Actinobacterial Database for Evolutionary Studies

Actinobacteria is a large and diverse phylum of bacteria that contains medically and ecologically relevant organisms. Many members are valuable sources of bioactive natural products and chemical precursors that are exploited in the clinic and made using the enzyme pathways encoded in their complex genomes. Whilst the number of sequenced genomes has increased rapidly in the last twenty years, the large size, complexity and high G+C content ofmany Acti nobacterial genomes means that the sequences remain incomplete and consist of large numbers of contigs with poor annotation, which hinders large scale comparative genomic and evolutionary studies. To enable greater understanding and exploitation of Actinobacterial genomes, specialised genomic databases must be linked to high-quality genome sequences. Here we provide a curated database of 612 high-quality actinobacterial genomes from genera, chosen to represent a broad phylogenetic group with equivalent genome reannotation. Utilising this database will provide researchers with a framework for evolutionary
and metabolic studies, to enable a foundation for genome and metabolic engineering, to facilitate discovery of novel bioactive therapeutics and studies on gene family evolution.