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Machine learning-based linking of bacterial genomes to optimal growth pH: a foundation for rational microbial engineering

delete2026-06-11
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OA
AI
H
Huilong Chen
X
Xin Yang
M
Muhsin AI Anas
S
Shuyan Feng
Y
Yanli Lin
G
Gang Xu
K
Kuikui Ni
F
Fuyu Yang *
X
Xuekai Wang *
DOI:10.1186/s40104-026-01434-7delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
Bacterial optimal growth pH is pivotal for enzymatic activity, niche adaptation, and synthetic biology applications (e.g., probiotic design, silage fermentation). Traditional experiments are inefficient, resource-intensive, and miss most unculturable taxa, while direct genome-based prediction of this trait remains unavailable—creating a critical genomic-phenotypic gap that hinders microbial engineering. We developed BactoGenopH ( http://silagedb.com/BactoGenopH/ ), a web platform for predicting the optimal growth pH of bacteria. We curated a high-quality dataset of 3,476 samples, integrating directly measured pH values from the BacDive database and peer-reviewed literature with corresponding representative genomes from GTDB. Genomic features were extracted via Prodigal for gene prediction and HMMER for Pfam-based functional annotation, with high-importance genes retained and encoded as a binary presence/absence matrix. The XGBoost regression model exhibited robust performance: test set MAE = 0.477, RMSE = 0.666, and 88.82% accuracy (1-pH-unit tolerance); the independent validation set yielded MAE = 0.492, RMSE = 0.694, and 89.37% accuracy. SHAP analysis identified key pH-adaptation genes (e.g., Na_Ala_symp, MgtE) with well-documented roles in ion transport and pH homeostasis. The freely accessible platform supports real-time predictions via FASTA sequence input or file upload, complemented by data visualization and curated dataset browsing. BactoGenopH fills the unmet need for direct, phenotype-grounded bacterial optimal growth pH prediction, bridging genomic-phenotypic gaps with robust performance. This free resource accelerates trait-driven microbial research and supports rational microbial engineering.
Keywords:
Bacterial optimal growth pH
Genomic-phenotypic linkage
Machine learning
Microbial engineering
Microbial pH adaptation
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Journal

Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology cover
Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology
IF:
6.5
Papers:
1.6K
Citations:
7.4K

Organization

H
Henan Agricultural University
Scholars:
1.4W
Papers: 6.0K
Citations: 9.3K
A
animal nutrition and feed science
Scholars:
20
Papers: 3
Citations: 0
C
College of Grassland Science and Technology
Scholars:
130
Papers: 32
Citations: 0
L
life sciences
Scholars:
2.1K
Papers: 676
Citations: 0
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