Despite these technical advancements and the availability of benchmark studies in metaproteomics , there remains a pressing need for dedicated benchmarking efforts focused on de novo sequencing methods tailored specifically to metaproteomics. Current benchmarks often focus on single-organism or human-centric datasets, which overlook the complexity and diversity of microbial communities in environmental samples. Effective benchmarks must evaluate factors like accuracy, precision, recall, speed, candidate validation, PTMs, and novel peptides, all crucial for reliable application of de novo sequencing in real-world metaproteomics.