Actinomycetes are highly important bacteria. On one hand, some of them cause severe human and plant diseases, on the other hand, many species are known for their ability to produce antibiotics. Here we report the results of a comparative analysis of genome-scale metabolic models of 37 species of actinomycetes. Based on in silico knockouts we generated topological and genomic maps for each organism. Combining the collection of genome-wide models, we constructed a global enzyme association network to identify both a conserved "core network" and an "essential core network" of the entire group. As has been reported for low-degree metabolites in several organisms, low-degree enzymes (in linear pathways) turn out to be generally more essential than high-degree enzymes (in metabolic hubs). ?? 2011 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.