New mOTUs tool and database release

Posted 18 August 2026
New mOTUs tool and database release

The marker gene-based taxonomic profiling tool mOTUs has undergone a major update and its associated database has also been updated. A new API allows access to the database.

mOTUs version 4.1.0 is a major update to the marker gene-based taxonomic profiling tool mOTUs. The source code is available on GitHub. Annotation and taxonomy files used to assign taxonomic and functional descriptions to marker genes and species-level operational taxonomic units are now distributed with the mOTUs profiler tool.

The associated mOTUs genome database has also been updated. Key features and updates are:

  • Expanded Database: Added 150,000 genomes targeting underrepresented ecological environments.

  • Improved Annotation Access: Smoother integration between the database and the tool - users access all sequence and annotation files of the database through the tool.

  • Threshold Adjustments: The motus classify command which assigns taxonomic units to user-provided genomes now outputs the closest mOTU even when the sequence identity falls below the 96.5% cut-off.

  • External Links: Links to MicrobeAtlas are provided in the mOTU table.

Version 4.1 of mOTUs-db comes with an API that allows automated access to genomic information stored in the database. No API key is required, and every response is either a JSON document or a downloadable file.

Questions? Contact the mOTUs team.

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