Worm Phenotype Ontology: integrating phenotype data within and beyond the C. elegans community

Background: Caenorhabditis elegans gene-based phenotype information dates back to the 1970’s, beginning with Sydney Brenner and the characterization of behavioral and morphological mutant alleles via classical genetics in order to understand nervous system function. Since then C. elegans has become an important genetic model system for the study of basic biological and biomedical principles, largely through the use of phenotype analysis. Because of the growth of C. elegans as a genetically tractable model organism and the development of large-scale analyses, there has been a significant increase of phenotype data that needs to be managed and made accessible to the research community. To do so, a standardized vocabulary is necessary to integrate phenotype data from diverse sources, permit integration with other data types and render the data in a computable form. Results: We describe a hierarchically structured, controlled vocabulary of terms that can be used to standardize phenotype...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2011
• Where: BMCBI
• Authors: Gary Schindelman, Jolene Fernandes, Carol Bastiani, Karen Yook, Paul W. Sternberg
• Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, BMCBI 2011, Elegans, Phenotype, Phenotype Data