MABEE, P.M.; Univ. of South Dakota, Vermillion: Integrating CToL-related studies with available phenotype and genomics databases for the zebrafish

The developing phenotype figures prominently in the work of developmental biology, and connecting gene expression and function to phenotypic effects are major emphases in studies of zebrafish and other model organisms. Approaches toward making this connection include gene misexpression and the isolation of single gene mutants that have discrete effects on body pattern, followed by examination of the effects on the resultant phenotype. The data resulting from these approaches is voluminous, and discovering the complex gene networks that connect sequence to phenotype will require increased bioinformatics efforts and new tools. We are taking an ontology approach to connect the evolutionary anatomy and image database that we are developing in our Cypriniformes Tree of Life (CToL) group to existing zebrafish genomic databases. Ontologies are controlled vocabularies that formally represent hierarchical relationships between defined biological concepts. They turn the free text descriptors of anatomical characters into computable data that can be explored and mined. Practically, in order for the growing databases in each area to connect in a way that evolutionary questions can be addressed, a shared ontology for homologous modules of the phenotype must be referenced. We expect the cross talk between our (CToL) group and the ZFIN (Zebrafish Information Network) group to result in the connection of our systematic characters to corresponding genomic data. I will present two use cases to demonstrate the broad utility of this approach.