Gene ontology: tool for the unification of biology. The Gene Ontology Consortium.

Abstract

Genomic sequencing has made it clear that a large fraction of thegenes specifying the core biological functions are shared by alleukaryotes. Knowledge of the biological role of such shared proteinsin one organism can often be transferred to other organisms. Thegoal of the Gene Ontology Consortium is to produce a dynamic, controlledvocabulary that can be applied to all eukaryotes even as knowledgeof gene and protein roles in cells is accumulating and changing.To this end, three independent ontologies accessible on the World-WideWeb (http://www.geneontology.org) are being constructed: biologicalprocess, molecular function and cellular component.