# Request to enable KEGG and Pfam databases: licensing and KEGG

**URL:** <https://help.galaxyproject.org/t/request-to-enable-kegg-and-pfam-databases-licensing-and-kegg/16473>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Tags:** tool-help, dram\_distill, dram\_annotate, dram\_merge\_annotations, dram\_strainer, dram\_neighborhoods, kegg-index-license\
**Created:** [November 5, 2025, 4:42pm UTC](https://help.galaxyproject.org/t/request-to-enable-kegg-and-pfam-databases-licensing-and-kegg/16473 "2025-11-05T16:42:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![jennaj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/help.galaxyproject.org/jennaj/32/27_2.png) [@jennaj](https://help.galaxyproject.org/u/jennaj)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2025, 10:19pm UTC](https://help.galaxyproject.org/t/request-to-enable-kegg-and-pfam-databases-licensing-and-kegg/16473/2 "2025-11-05T22:19:42Z")

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Welcome @german_coy_lopez

We have an open request for this but it is still pending and some of it is unlikely to be completed on the public servers due to licensing reasons.

> [@DRAM distill: Error while running](https://help.galaxyproject.org/t/dram-distill-error-while-running/15665/6):
>
> Yes, for now you will need to supply your own reference data for the tool to use (from the history, as described in the guide I linked).
> 
> For the native index choices, we are still waiting for this request to be processed:
> 
> > [@DRAM distill: Error while running](https://help.galaxyproject.org/t/dram-distill-error-while-running/15665/4):
> >
> > Now, while you can supply your own annotation files, it would be nicer to have the native indexes. I’ve requested this at → [Request: add native indexes for the DRAM suite of tools · Issue #1562 · usegalaxy-eu/infrastructure-playbook · GitHub](https://github.com/usegalaxy-eu/infrastructure-playbook/issues/1562)
> 
> Hope this helps to clarify the status! I could get the annotation tool to run correctly (see my original testing history linked above – some test are in the hidden tab) but the data is incomplete with the current limited native indexes. 🙂

* * *

For metagenomic analysis, this is the current tool many are using. This annotates the reads, not assemblies, based on abundance information.

- **HUMAnN** to profile presence/absence and abundance of microbial pathways and gene families
- 🎓 GTN tutorials for [HUMAnN](https://training.galaxyproject.org/training-material/by-tool/iuc/humann/humann.html)

More tools you can explore:

- **PfamScan** search a FASTA sequence against a library of Pfam HMM
- **Get Pathways** Look up KEGG pathways for given Ensembl transcripts
- **gProfiler Convert** converts between various types of namespaces
- **AnnotateMyIDs** annotate a generic set of identifiers

For KEGG and assemblies, we had a related discussion about this last week.

- [Diamond UniRef90 - #3 by elena.peresani](https://help.galaxyproject.org/t/diamond-uniref90/16415/3)

Some of the complications are rooted in [the KEGG data not being a public database](https://www.kegg.jp/kegg/legal.html). Anyone can use the public Galaxy servers .. but if a dataset or tool is restricted to academics or requires a commercial license, hosting by public Galaxy servers isn’t possible.

- [KEGG FTP Academic Subscription](https://www.pathway.jp/en/academic.html)

I hope this helps to explain the situation! 🙂

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_[View the full topic](https://help.galaxyproject.org/t/request-to-enable-kegg-and-pfam-databases-licensing-and-kegg/16473)._