Searching KEGG

The KEGG database is made accessible in two formats. One is the flat-file format for use in simple searches by the DBGET database retrieval system. The other is the relational database format for more sophisticated queries in selected databases.

1. DBGET Search

DBGET has been developed as the backbone retrieval system for the GenomeNet and KEGG services (see the history of development). It is based on a flat-file view of molecular biology databases, where the database is considered as a collection of entries. Thus, any entry of any database can be retrieved by the combination of the database name and the entry name in the form of:

db:entry

DBGET has two basic commands:

bget - to retrieve 'db:entry'
bfind - to find 'db:entry's by keyword search

The keyword search is performed against the following fields of the KEGG database entries (see entry format).

Database name		Abbre- viation	Search fields
kegg	pathway	path	ENTRY, NAME
	brite	br	ENTRY, NAME
	module	md	ENTRY, NAME
	orthology	ko	ENTRY, SYMBOL, NAME
	genes	<org>	ENTRY, SYMBOL, NAME, KO
	genome	gn	ENTRY, ORG_CODE, NAME
	compound	cpd	ENTRY, NAME
	glycan	gl	ENTRY, NAME, COMPOSITION
	reaction	rn	ENTRY, NAME, DEFINITION
	rclass	rc	ENTRY, NAME, DEFINITION
	enzyme	ec	ENTRY, NAME
	network	ne	ENTRY, NAME
	variant	hsa_var	ENTRY, NAME
	disease	ds	ENTRY, NAME
	drug	dr	ENTRY, NAME
	dgroup	dg	ENTRY, NAME

2. RDB Search

The search interfaces in the following pages are direct SQL searches against the read-only copy of the internal KEGG database. The Japanese version is available for DISEASE, DRUG and DGROUP databases.

Database page	Search fields
PATHWAY	Entry, Name, Description, Map objects, Map legends
COMPOUND	Entry, Name, Formula, Exact mass
GLYCAN	Entry, Name, Composition
REACTION	Entry, Name, Equation
NETWORK	Entry, Name, Definition, Disease
VARIANT	Entry, Name, Variation
DISEASE	Entry, Name, Description, Category, Pathway, Gene
DRUG	Entry, Name, Product name, Component
DGROUP	Entry, Name

3. KEGG MEDICUS Search

KEGG MEDICUS search is an integrated search against drug labels (in Japan and/or the USA) together with relevant KEGG databases. See more details in KEGG MEDICUS.

Last updated: May 21, 2021