@staticmethod
def __is_gene_permitted(lst, permitted) ->bool:
    """
        Obtains if the KEGG type of the entity is permitted.
        For instance we allow orthologies (ko:xxx) to pass, but not compounds (cpd:xxx) or things we don't understand (blah:xxx).
        """
    if permitted is None:
        return True
    if ' ' in lst:
        lst = lst.split(' ', 1)[0]
    if not ':' in lst:
        return False
    type_ = lst.split(':')[0]
    return type_.lower() in permitted
