A User’s Guide to GO: Structural and Functional Annotation
Genomic Annotation Genome annotation is the process of attaching biological information to genomic sequences. It consists of two main steps: identifying functional elements in the genome: “structural annotation” attaching biological information to these elements: “functional annotation” biologists often use the term “annotation” when they are referring only to structural annotation
Structural annotation: DNA annotation CHICK_OLF6 Protein annotation TRAF 1, 2 and 3 TRAF 1 and 2 Data from Ensembl Genome browser
Functional annotation: catenin
Structural & Functional Annotation Structural Annotation: Open reading frames (ORFs) predicted during genome assembly predicted ORFs require experimental confirmation the Sequence Ontology (SO) provides a structured controlled vocabulary for sequence annotation Functional Annotation: annotation of gene products = Gene Ontology (GO) annotation initially, predicted ORFs have no functional literature and GO annotation relies on computational methods (rapid) functional literature exists for many genes/proteins prior to genome sequencing GO annotation does not rely on a completed genome sequence!
Genomic Annotation Ontologies Ontologies define classes of biological terms & show how they relate to each other human readable term names computer mineable (large datasets) Structural annotation: Sequence Ontology (SO) http://www.sequenceontology.org/ Functional annotation: Gene Ontology (GO) molecular function, biological process, cellular process http://www.geneontology.org/