Bashir A Akhoon, Lakshay Anand, Kendall R Corbin
Bacterial cellulose (BC)-producing taxa constitute a functionally coherent yet phylogenetically heterogeneous assemblage of acetic acid bacteria distributed across evolutionary lineages within Alphaproteobacteria. Despite the importance of BC as a biomaterial in diverse biotechnological applications, a dedicated resource for the study and comparative analysis of cellulose-producing bacteria is currently lacking. To address this gap, we developed CelluBase - an integrated, user-friendly database for the study of bacteria from the genera Komagataeibacter and Novacetimonas. CelluBase is a domain-specific database dedicated to the genetic and functional dissection of BC synthesis. It integrates high-quality genome assemblies, functional annotations, operonic architectural analyses, multi-omics datasets and comparative genomics analyses for investigating the molecular mechanisms governing BC biosynthesis. Key features of the database include characterization of cellulose synthase gene organization, regulatory network architecture, metabolic pathway diversification and phylogenomic relationships across cellulose-producing lineages. Results generated within the CelluBase framework are available as text, interactive plots, and publication-ready figures. CelluBase (https://cellubase.shinyapps.io/cellubase/) is the first publicly accessible repository for BC genomics. CelluBase is designed to support comparative studies of cellulose-producing strains, in addition to providing the framework for future studies related to strain enhancement, cellulose yield improvement, and targeted metabolic engineering.