An OWL-DL Ontology for Classification of Lipids

Abstract

Lipids can be systematically classified according to functional properties, structural features, biochemical origin or biological system. However Lipid nomenclature has yet to become a robust research tool since no rigorous definitions exist for membership of specific lipid classes. Lipids need to be defined in a manner that is systematic yet at the same time semantically explicit. We report on the reuse of existing lipid nomenclature, ontology describing chemical structure and the extension of the OWL-DL Lipid Ontology to support the classification of lipid molecules. We applied definitions, DL-axioms, to describe lipids classes and illustrate suitability of the ontology for the classification of Fatty Acyl lipids and Mycolic acids.