Improving the representation of central nervous system development in the biological process ontology

Judith Blake (1, 2), William Bug (3), Rex Chisholm (1, 4), Jennifer Clark (1, 5), Erika Feltrin (6), Jacqueline Finger (2), David Hill (1, 2), Midori Harris (1, 5), Terry Hayamizu (2), Doug Howe (9), Maryanne Martone (7), Kathleen Millen (8), Francis Sele (4) (1. The Gene Ontology Consortium, 2. Mouse Genome Informatics, Bar Harbor, ME, 3. Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, 4. Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, 5. EMBL-EBI, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, UK, 6. The University of Padua, Padua, Italy, 7. The University of California at San Diego, San Diego, CA, 8. The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 9. The Zebrafish Information Network, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR); 2006

Current genetic and molecular studies in many model organisms are aimed at understanding formation and development of the nervous system. Up until this point, the GO has had a very shallow representation of processes pertaining to the nervous system. In June 2006, curators from MGI and ZFIN met with researchers studying central nervous system development to improve the representation of these processes in GO. In particular, emphasis was placed on three areas that are being addressed actively in current research: forebrain development, hindbrain development and neural tube development. This collaboration resulted in the addition of over 500 terms that reflect the development of the forebrain, the hindbrain, and the neural tube from the perspective of biological process and anatomical structure.