The vertebrate bridging ontology (VBO)

Abstract

The recent proliferation of ontologies for organizing and modeling anatomical, phenotypic, and genetic information is a welcome development, with a great deal of potential for transforming the way scientists access and use knowledge. Realization of this potential calls for effective ways of integrating and computing on various information sources. In this paper, we introduce the Vertebrate Bridging Ontology (VBO), which permits the transfer of information about homologous anatomical structures between species - a first step towards the integration of species-specific anatomical ontologies. We present the ontology, design patterns, and methodology, and discuss how it can be applied to use-cases to meet the information needs of the scientific user community.