An anatomy ontology for oro‐pharyngeal muscles and the logical underpinnings of comparative anatomy (338.4)

Abstract

The FEED ontology is an ontology for oro‐pharyngeal muscles and behaviors (http://code.google.com/p/feedontology/). The FEED ontology is an outgrowth of the Feeding Experiments End‐User Database (FEED, http://www.feedexp.org), a multi‐species mammalian database that includes EMG, bone strain, bite force, sonomicrometry, and kinematic data collected during feeding behaviors. FEED utilizes a controlled vocabulary of terms for mammalian feeding muscles and feeding behaviors. The FEED ontology contains classes that refer to anatomical structures, behaviors, and other entities involved in feeding, each of which is given a unique identifier and an explicit definition that is interconnected to other entities by logically defined relationships. These logical definitions make explicit the semantic underpinnings of comparative anatomy. Many of the classes have been merged directly into Uberon (Mungall et al., 2012. Genome Biology, 13(1), R5), a large, multi‐species anatomy ontology. The structure enables connections and queries across the FEED and other ontologies with which it is integrated, such as GO (Gene Ontology), and MA (Mouse Anatomy), as well as to the FEED database itself, and it contributes to the growing framework of ontologies and databases for organizing and analyzing biological data across disciplines and domains.