Host: Dr. Tanya Berardini

Abstract: 

The Gene Ontology: Making functional annotation of plants and animals FAIR.

The Gene Ontology is one of the most widely used databases in the biosciences, covering functional annotation of genes and gene products across a wide range of species. The GO is ubiquitously used to analyse a variety of types of high-throughput experimental data. Originally created to unify functional annotation across a handful of model organism databases, the GO has grown to encompass more species, and the structure of the GO has been extended to integrate with other ontologies such as CHEBI and the Plant Ontology. The structure of annotations has also evolved, and the GO now includes more expressive pathway-oriented annotations in the form of GO-CAMs (Causal Activity Models). In this talk I will give a practical guide to the structure of GO, how to find and request terms, how to search and create annotations, and how to use GO tools. I will also talk about how the broader AgBioData can contribute to the GO consortium to help seed functional annotation efforts in a more diverse range of organisms, and in particular with agriculturally relevant species.