About
From HAO Wiki
Contents |
What is Hymenoptera
Hymenoptera comprise a megadiverse lineage of insects, most of which remain undescribed to science. Hymenoptera species include what are commonly known as sawflies, bees, wasps, hornets and ants. Over 1 million species of Hymenoptera are estimated to occur in the world. Describing this diversity is an enormous task, one that is far from completion.
What is an Ontology?
An ontology is a formalized system of concepts and their logical relationships. The major elements of our ontology are labels (= terms; words used to refer to “things”), classes (= concepts; the “things” that we want to organize and relate) and relations (= relationships; the way we link classes). In our ontology, classes are linked with the relations is_a, part_of, and integral_part_of as well as attaches_to (used for muscles). So, for example, the class that is referred to by the label “flagellomere” (also by the synonymous label “flagellar segment”) is_a “annulus” and is part_of “flagellum” (Fig. 1). This logic is then populated throughout the ontology using relations, giving a hierarchical, tree-like structure. Thus, since “annulus” is_a “sclerite” we can logically infer that “flagellomere” is_a “sclerite” (Fig. 1). The ability to logically reason between classes using relations is one major advantage of an ontological framework.
Figure 1:
 |
Why do this for Hymenoptera Anatomy?
As one might predict, there are many sub-groups of scientists specializing on particular aspects of hymenotperan diversity. Many of these specialists groups have developed their own lexicon, or special-language, for describing the anatomy that is particular to their group of interest. These specializations are often difficult to reconcile across sub-domains, for example scientists studying ants may use a different set of words to describe their anatomy than do scientists studying bees. Not unsurprisingly many studies that deal with Hymenoptera reference their anatomy.
Given this scenario the goal is to provide a framework that unifies the language that we use across the various sub-domains, or at minimum provide a mechanism by which a diverse array of scientists can reference a shared (and therefor unifying) set of data. The outcomes of using a shared point of reference (ontology) are numerous and critically important to a modern scientifc approach to studying all aspects of hymenopteran diversity:
- Ontologies can be linked to other ontologies and the pathways created by these linkages can result in new, more efficient exploration of areas that are poorly understood in one system but well understood in another. For example much is known about the genetic mechanisms of Drosophila development but correspondingly little is known about the development of Hymenopterans. By linking hymenopteran anatomy to Drosophila anatomy a pathway to querying for starting points to understanding hymenopteran development is initiated.
- A shared point of reference ultimately strengthens hypotheses of homology.
- Ontologies further strengthen scientific repeatability by providing more robust definitions for the subjects in question. In practice better definitions are more easily testable, and potentially refutable.
- Ontologies are fundamental to the knowledge organization for model organisms. All of the major model organisms have underlying ontologies which facilitate the organization and querying of their underlying data. {TODO: Flybase,Zfin, PO links}. Major efforts such as Phenoscape are extending this search/organization functionality with novel interfaces and extended data-structures based on the underlying ontologies.
The original proposal is summarized here.
How are we doing this
See HAO_to.
As part of the developing the HAO we developed new web-based applications to aid in the development of ontologies in general. These applications are open source, and available to anyone seeking to build an ontology collaboratively. The software is detailed at http://mx.phenomix.org, in particular see the context-sensitive help for the ontology based components here.
Who is involved?
The Hymenoptera Anatomy Ontology is a community-based project that welcomes input at all levels. The easiest way to get involved is to express your interest on the listserv.
At present the core team (i.e. funded by the NSF ABI) consists of:
- Andy Deans andy_deans@ncsu.edu
- Matt Yoder diapriid@gmail.com
- Katja Seltmann katja_seltmann@ncsu.edu
- István Mikó istvan.miko@gmail.com
- Matt Bertone matthew.bertone@gmail.com
- Andrew Ernst ernsthausen@gmail.com
Partners
 |  | 
|
ISH Support
The HAO was originally proposed in the context of the International Society of Hymenopterists, and an committee (see below) was appointed to facilitate it's development.
The HAO Working group
| member | affiliation | |
|---|---|---|
| Gavin Broad | g.broad@nhm.ac.uk | Natural History Museum |
| Andy Deans, chair | adeans@gmail.com | NC State University |
| Gary Gibson | Gibsong@agr.gc.ca | Canadian National Insect Collection |
| Norm Johnson | Johnson.2@osu.edu | Ohio State University |
| Susanne Schulmeister | schulmei@amnh.org | American Museum of Natural History |
| Mike Sharkey | msharkey@uky.edu | University of Kentucky |
| Bob Wharton | rawbaw2@tamu.edu | Texas A & M University |
