NPClassifier: A Deep Neural Network-Based Structural Classification Tool for Natural Products

Computational approaches such as genome and metabolome mining are becoming essential to natural products (NP) research. Consequently, demands for automated NP classification system for massive data are increasing. The semantic ontology of NPs classifies molecules based on the taxonomy of the producing organism, the nature of the biosynthetic pathway, their biological properties, as well as the presence of chemical substructures. Thus, a holistic and automatic NP classification framework could have considerable value to comprehensively navigate the relatedness of NPs. Here, we introduce NPClassifier, the first deep-learning tool for the automated structural classification of NPs. We expect that NPClassifier will accelerate NP discovery by facilitating and enabling large-scale genome and metabolome mining efforts and linking of NP structures to their underlying bioactivity.