Absence Phenotypes in OWL

Phenotypes describing the absence of a type of structure require particular consideration for both semantic modeling and reasoning.

EQ modeling

We generally represent phenotypes as classes describing relationships between an entity and a quality. The entity is usually an anatomical structure, such as a dorsal fin, which is the bearer_of some quality, such as an instance of serrated. The inverse of bearer_of is inheres_in, so we can either describe the set of organisms with this phenotype:

has_part some (dorsal fin and bearer_of some serrated)

or describe this class of phenotypes (from the quality perspective):

serrated and inheres_in some dorsal fin