metaTraits

A large-scale integration of microbial phenotypic trait information

About

metaTraits is a unified and accessible microbial trait resource that integrates culture-derived trait information from BacDive, BV-BRC, JGI IMG, and GOLD, with genome-based predictions for medium- and high-quality isolate and metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from proGenomes and SPIRE.

metaTraits covers over 2.2 million genomes and more than 140 harmonized traits mapped to standardized ontologies, spanning cell morphology (e.g., shape, size, Gram staining), physiology (e.g., motility, sporulation), metabolic and enzymatic activities, environmental preferences (e.g., temperature, salinity, oxygen tolerance), and lifestyle categories. All records are linked to their original evidence and cross-referenced to both NCBI and GTDB taxonomies.

Search & Summaries

  • Taxonomic levels: fetch and download family, genus, or species-level trait summaries (or search by ID, e.g., GCA_001606525.1, spire_mag_00047739).
  • Database control: Use the Databases menu in the search bar to (de-)select sources you trust and toggle between GTDB and NCBI taxonomy.
  • Provenance: Access links back to the original observations.

Annotation Workflows