Difference between revisions of "Ontologies"
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[[WG:Anatomy_Ontology_Conf_calls | Notes from conference calls ]] for anatomy ontology coordination are maintained in the project intranet. | [[WG:Anatomy_Ontology_Conf_calls | Notes from conference calls ]] for anatomy ontology coordination are maintained in the project intranet. | ||
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== Taxonomy Ontologies == | == Taxonomy Ontologies == | ||
Revision as of 15:40, 7 July 2011
Phenoscape is using multiple ontologies to describe variation in phenotypes across species. We have developed several new ontologies required for evolutionary biology, but whenever possible, we are sharing existing ontologies with the broader biological community. This will ensure the greatest interoperability between evolutionary and model organism data.
Ontologies Initiated by Phenoscape
Phenoscape has developed ontologies that are required for the annotation of evolutionary phenotypes across species. These ontologies are publicly available and being used and extended by the community (view the list of contributors).
These ontologies will keep changing to accommodate our community needs, and they have been admitted into the OBO CVS-based version-control system, from where the NCBO's BioPortal loads and updates ontologies on a regular basis. Ontologies available at the BioPortal can be browsed, searched, and visualized. Ontologies are also available for download as .obo files from the BioPortal or OBO Foundry, and viewed using the OBO-Edit desktop software.
Contents
Anatomy Ontologies
Phenoscape is coordinating the integration of model organism (zebrafish, Xenopus, mouse) and multi-species (see below) anatomy ontologies for vertebrates. Ontology update requests are made on the Vertebrate Anatomy term request tracker, and requests are forwarded to the vertebrate anatomy mailing list. Links to the term request and mailing list subscription page are below:
- Vertebrate anatomy term request page (requests are forwarded to the mailing list):
- Subscribe to the vertebrate anatomy mailing list
- Vertebrate anatomy list email: obo-vertebrate-anatomy@lists.sourceforge.net
Notes from conference calls for anatomy ontology coordination are maintained in the project intranet.
Taxonomy Ontologies
Teleost Taxonomy Ontology
Phenotypes are associated with species using a taxonomy ontology, the Teleost Taxonomy Ontology (TTO) derived from the Catalog of Fishes (see also the representation on BioPortal, which can be navigated on-line). The TTO is updated in concert with Catalog of Fishes updates. Changes to the TTO relative to the latest version generated from a dump from the Catalog of Fishes are documented TTO_Changes.
Amphibian Taxonomy Ontology
The ATO is derived from the AmphibiaWeb list, which provides both taxonomy and some synonyms from ITIS and the IUCN redlist.
Vertebrate Taxonomy Ontology
The Vertebrate Taxonomy Ontology includes the TTO, ATO, as well as a new Amniote Taxonomy Ontology. An initial release, including TTO and ATO, but using pan-vertebrate resources (see below) rather than a separate AmTO was made in May 2011. This taxonomy covers vertebrates and was built by starting with the NCBI taxonomy for vertebrates and splicing in TTO (except hagfish), ATO, and the IOC taxonomy of living birds. Synonyms from ITIS and Catalog of Life were attached if the primary name matched a name in the existing taxonomy. Subspecies names were added to their parent species as synonyms (not subclasses). The taxonomy is currently in the OBO format used for TTO and ATO, which includes the use of the Taxonomic Rank Vocabulary to tag taxa with specified rank.
Other Taxonomic Resources
Amniotes
- Birds The IOC checklist provides a current taxonomy and common names, but no taxonomic synonyms.
- Mammals Wilson and Reader (1993) is the standard, but the available electronic version of their taxonomy is IP encumbered.
Taxonomic (hierarchy) Resources
- NCBI This was used to fill in the gaps (non-avian amniotes) in the current proposed VTO. This provides taxonomy for GenBank submissions (including fossil taxa), but does not claim to be an authoritative source (and generally doesn't cover taxa that have not been submitted). It does provide some taxonomic synonyms as well.
- ITIS Has some vetting by area experts, but coverage is not complete (nor uncontroversial).
Nomenclature Resources
These can provide links to additional synonyms and resources (e.g., TTO uses fishbase to provide common names and links to their pages). Taxonomic synonyms are particularly useful as aids to data curation, but common names can assist users in browsing the website. Some nomenclature resources act as aggregators of names from other sources (e.g., Catalogue of Life incorporates names from ITIS. Taxonomic resources (above) can be used as sources of names as well.
- Fishbase - their taxonomy is close to TTO (both based on Catalog of Fishes), but TTO uses it strictly as a name resource.
- Global Names Index (GNI)
- Catalogue of Life
Additional documentation
- Documenting taxon concepts used in a publication
- Taxonomy ontology: ranks, unknown/unnamed species, & related issues
- Ambiguous specimen information: annotating phenotypes for specimens or species (also called the Hypodigm problem)
Taxonomic Rank Vocabulary
During 2010, we released a separate Taxonomic Rank Vocabulary (TAXRANK), and removed all rank terms (e.g., family, genus, etc.) from the taxa within the TTO. Taxa in the TTO specify their ranks as property values via the metadata relation has_rank, but the object of the has_rank links is contained in the TAXRANK vocabulary.
Developing TAXRANK as a vocabulary, rather than an ontology (e.g., by defining an ordering relation between ranks) should facilitate its reuse in other taxonomic ontologies. Developing a cross-authority (e.g., ICZN, ICBN, etc.) ontology of ranks may be possible, but there does not appear to be a compelling need for such an ontology.
- Browse TTO at BioPortal
- Download TTO from Bioportal or OBO Foundry (use OBO Edit desktop software to open and view .obo file).
Fish Collection Codes Ontology
There is a vocabulary of fish collections, based on a list used in Catalog of Fishes, though with a few additions listed on the Fish Collection Updates page. It has been augmented with links to entries in the Biodiversity Collections Index.
The current release, as used in Phenex is Fish Collection Abbreviations
These ontologies listed below were initiated by the model organism communities. Phenoscape is actively involved in extending these ontologies.
Phenotype and Trait Ontology
Evidence Code Ontology
Relations Ontology
Spatial Ontology
Comparative Data Analysis Ontology
CDAO is developed by the EvoInfo working group at NESCent, and is being used within the Phenoscape OBD data repository.
