BIOPAX Ontology

Contents:


Class Definitions

This section of the HTML version of the ontology contains the class definitions of the ontology. Each class defines a type of entity. A class is defined to have a set of slots, where each slot defines attributes and properties that may be used by an instance of that class.

Slots are inherited by a class from its parent classes. Usually this HTML form of the ontology shows only the names of the slots at each class, with links provided to the full definition of the slot in the slot section of the ontology. However, when the definition of a slot is changed within a class with respect to its parent, the full definition of the slot is shown.

Class: entity

Any concept that we will refer to as a discrete unit when describing biological pathways. e.g. a pathway, interaction or physical entity.

Subclasses: interaction, physicalEntity, pathway

Slots:

Class: interaction

One or two sets of entities and some relationship between them. A relationship exists between two or more entities and is not defined without the entities. The relationship does not have to be a physical relationship. It can be another type, such as logical, temporal, genetic, etc.

Supperclasses: entity

Subclasses: control, conversion, genetic, equivalenceClass, molecularAssociation, co-occurrence

Slots:

Class: control

The control of a process (e.g. enzyme catalysis controls a biochemical reaction, gene regulation controls gene expression).

Supperclasses: interaction

Subclasses: enzymeCatalysis, transportCatalysis, geneRegulation

Slots:

Class: enzymeCatalysis

Describes the catalysis by an enzyme of a particular reaction. Instances of this class describe properties of a pairing between an enzyme and a reaction. For example, a bifunctional enzyme that catalyzes two different reactions would be linked to two instances of the enzymeCatalysis class to describe the different properties of each function of that enzyme. Enzyme catalysis controls biochemicalReaction and together these classes can be used to describe typical metabolic pathways.

Supperclasses: control

Slots:

Class: transportCatalysis

Control of the process of transportation. An active or passive transporter can facilitate a translocation event.

Supperclasses: control

Slots:

Class: geneRegulation

The process of gene regulation by a transcription factor. A transcription factor binds upstream

Supperclasses: control

Slots:

Class: conversion

A conversion process, which converts one set of entities to another set (e.g. a biochemical reaction converts substrates to products, the process of complex assembly converts single molecules to a complex, transport converts entities in one compartment to the same entities in another compartment).

Supperclasses: interaction

Subclasses: biochemicalReaction, transport, translation, transcription, complexAssembly

Slots:

 

VALUE-TYPE: entity
SLOT-NAME-SYNONYMS: reactants, input

 

VALUE-TYPE: entity
SLOT-NAME-SYNONYMS: products, output

Class: biochemicalReaction

A biochemical reaction is a reaction in which substrates are written in terms of sums of species. This is what is typically done in biochemistry, and, in principle, all of the EC reactions should be biochemical reactions. Example: ATP + H2O = ADP + Pi. In this reaction, ATP is considered to be an equilibrium mixture of several species, namely ATP4-, HATP3-, H2ATP2-, MgATP2-, MgHATP-, and Mg2ATP. Additional species may also need to be considered if other ions (e.g. Ca2+) that bind ATP are present. Similar considerations apply to ADP and to inorganic phosphate (Pi). When writing biochemical reactions, it is important not to attach charges to the biochemical reactants and not to include ions such as H+ and Mg2+ in the equation. The reaction is written in the direction specified by the EC nomenclature system, if applicable, regardless of the physiological direction(s) in which the reaction proceeds.

Supperclasses: conversion

Slots:

For biochemical reactions, this slot refers to the standard transformed Gibbs energy change for a reaction written in terms of biochemical reactants (sums of species), delta-G'o.

delta-G'o = -RT lnK' and
delta-G'o = delta-H'o - T delta-S'o

delta-G'o has units of kJ/mol. Like K', it is a function of temperature (T), ionic strength (I), pH, and pMg (pMg = -log10[Mg2+]). Therefore, these quantities must be specified, and values for DELTA-G for biochemical reactions are represented as 5-tuples of the form (delta-G'o T I pH pMg). This slot may have multiple values, representing different measurements for delta-G'o obtained under the different experimental conditions listed in the 5-tuple.

VALUE-TYPE: LIST

For biochemical reactions, this slot refers to the standard transformed enthalpy change for a reaction written in terms of biochemical reactants (sums of species), delta-H'o.

delta-G'o = delta-H'o - T delta-S'o

VALUE-TYPE: NUMBER

For biochemical reactions, this slot refers to the standard transformed entropy change for a reaction written in terms of biochemical reactants (sums of species), delta-S'o.

delta-G'o = delta-H'o - T delta-S'o

VALUE-TYPE: NUMBER

The measured equilibrium constant for a biochemical reaction, encoded by the slot KEQ, is actually the apparent equilibrium constant, K'. Concentrations in the equilibrium constant equation refer to the total concentrations of all forms of particular biochemical reactants. For example, in the equilibrium constant equation for the biochemical reaction in which ATP is hydrolyzed to ADP and inorganic phosphate:

K' = [ADP][Pi]/[ATP],

the concentration of ATP refers to the total concentration of all of the following species:

[ATP] = [ATP4-] + [HATP3-] + [H2ATP2-] + [MgATP2-] + [MgHATP-] + [Mg2ATP].

The apparent equilibrium constant is formally dimensionless, and can be kept so by inclusion of as many of the terms (1 mol/dm3) in the numerator or denominator as necessary. It is a function of temperature (T), ionic strength (I), pH, and pMg (pMg = -log10[Mg2+]). Therefore, these quantities must be specified, and values for KEQ for biochemical reactions are represented as 5-tuples of the form (K' T I pH pMg). This slot may have multiple values, representing different measurements for K' obtained under the different experimental conditions listed in the 5-tuple.

VALUE-TYPE: NUMBER

Class: transport

The process of transport from one spatial location to another, typically within or at

Supperclasses: conversion

Slots:

Class: translation

Process of translation. This is useful to describe translation when details are unknown.

Supperclasses: conversion

Slots:

Class: transcription

The process of transcription. This is useful to describe transcription when details are unknown.

Supperclasses: conversion

Slots:

Class: complexAssembly

A step in the process of complex assembly. This is not the same as a complex, which is a physical object, called molecular association in the interaction class hierarchy.

Supperclasses: conversion

Slots:

Class: genetic

A genetic interaction (e.g. a synthetic lethal interaction). An interaction between elements of a genotype that results in a change in phenotype.

Supperclasses: interaction

Subclasses: synthetic, epistasis, suppression

Slots:

Class: synthetic

A synthetic genetic interaction. Two genes have a synthetic phenotype if each gene separately mutated has no phenotype, but when both genes are mutated at the same time, the phenotype exists.

Supperclasses: genetic

Slots:

Class: epistasis

An epistatic interaction occurs when an allele at one locus renders the genotype at a second locus irrelevant - the phenotype will be dictated by the genotype of the epistatic gene alone. (This definition from

Supperclasses: genetic

Slots:

Class: suppression

A suppressor is generally defined as a mutation that completely or partially restores the mutant phenotype of another mutation. (This definition from

Supperclasses: genetic

Slots:

Class: equivalenceClass

A set of entities that can be considered equivalent in some context (e.g. a set of paralogs that can replace each other as enzymes in a biochemical reaction, a set of enzymes that may not be homologs, but are functionally identical e.g. glucose-6-phosphatase).

Supperclasses: interaction

Slots:

Class: molecularAssociation

An association between a set of molecules (e.g. Arp2-Arp3 protein-protein interaction; protein complex e.g. the result of a co-immunoprecipitation experiment; hexokinase-glucose).

Supperclasses: interaction

Slots:

Class: co-occurrence

The co-occurrence of entities in some context. That context could be time, space, a sentence, sequence similarity space, etc. (e.g. colocalization of a few receptors e.g. in a GPI anchored lipid raft; co-migration of cells; genes expressed at the same time.)

Supperclasses: interaction

Subclasses: co-localization, co-incidence

Slots:

Class: co-localization

The co-occurrence of entities in space.

Supperclasses: co-occurrence

Slots:

Class: co-incidence

The co-occurrence of entities in time.

Supperclasses: co-occurrence

Slots:

Class: physicalEntity

Describes all physical entities, from molecules to cells to organs. A building block of simple interactions (simple interactions are those that do involve pathways or other interactions)

Supperclasses: entity

Subclasses: cell, cellComponent, dna, rna, protein, smallMolecule, environment, photon

Slots:

Class: cell

A specific type of cell. (e.g. cardiac myocyte, B lymphocyte)

Supperclasses: physicalEntity

Slots:

Class: cellComponent

A part of a cell (e.g. nucleus, mitochondrion). Use cellular components defined by Gene Ontology.

Supperclasses: physicalEntity

Slots:

Class: dna

Deoxyribonucleic acid. (e.g. EGFR DNA sequence. See GenBank for more examples.)

Supperclasses: physicalEntity

Slots:

Class: rna

Ribonucleic acid (e.g. messengerRNA, microRNA, ribosomalRNA)

Supperclasses: physicalEntity

Slots:

Class: protein

A protein (e.g. The EGFR protein sequence. See Swiss-Prot for more examples.)

Supperclasses: physicalEntity

Slots:

Class: smallMolecule

A non-polymeric biomolecule. Generally, any bioactive molecule that is not a peptide, protein, DNA, RNA or possibly not a complex carbohydrate (e.g. glucose, penicillin)

Supperclasses: physicalEntity

Slots:

Class: environment

A physical or environmental effect.

Supperclasses: physicalEntity

Slots:

Class: photon

Light at either a specified or unspecified intensity and wavelength (e.g. UV light).

Supperclasses: physicalEntity

Slots:

Class: pathway

A biological pathway. A series of steps defined by biologists as a pathways. A set of interactions (a pathway has interactions).

Supperclasses: entity

Slots:

Class: utilityClasses

These classes are taken directly from PSI-MI and are named as closely as possible to the PSI naming scheme.

Subclasses: baseLocationType.BeginEnd, intervalType, positionType, baseLocationType, feature, confidenceContainer, cvType, openCvType, bioSourceType, experiment, attributeListContainer, dbReferenceType, attributeListType, xrefType, bibrefType, namesType, source, entrySet, entry

Slots:

Class: baseLocationType.BeginEnd

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

Class: intervalType

A sequence interval

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

Class: positionType

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

Class: baseLocationType

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

Class: feature

A feature is some part of a physicalEntity (e.g. a domain on a protein, a functional group on a small molecule)

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

Class: confidenceContainer

A statistical confidence value.

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

Class: cvType

A controlled vocabulary that is included in the ontology.

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

Class: openCvType

A controlled vocabulary that is external to the ontology.

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

Class: bioSourceType

A biological source

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

Class: experiment

Describes an experiment.

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

Class: attributeListContainer

A container for the list of attributes.

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

Class: dbReferenceType

A reference to a database. Refers to a unique object in an external database.

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

Class: attributeListType

A list of user-defined attributes.

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

Class: xrefType

A cross-reference

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

Class: bibrefType

Bibliographic reference for the data source. Example: A paper which describes all interactions of the entry.

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

Class: namesType

A name

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

Class: source

Desciption of the source of the information.

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

Class: entrySet

Root element of the Molecular interaction Format

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

Class: entry

Describes one or more interactions as a self-contained unit. Multiple entries from different files can be concatenated into a single entrySet.

Supperclasses: utilityClasses

Slots:

 


Slot Definitions

This section of the HTML version of the ontology contains the slot definitions of the ontology. Each slot itself has several properties such as documentation about that slot, a cardinality (specifying the number of values that the slot may have), a value type (specifying the data type of slot values), and a domain (specifying the class(es) in which the slot is used).

Slot Name

Documentation

Properties

ATTRIBUTE

A user-defined attribute

CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: STRING
DOMAIN: attributeListType

ATTRIBUTELIST

A list of user defined attributes for experiment

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: attributeListContainer
DOMAIN: entity, entry, openCvType, experiment, source

ATTRIBUTES

A list of user-defined attributes

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: attributeListType
DOMAIN: attributeListContainer

AVAILABILITY

Describes the availability of this data (e.g. a copyright statement)

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
VALUE-TYPE: STRING
DOMAIN: entity, entry

BASELOCATIONCHOICE

A choice of sequence location

VALUE-TYPE: (ONE-OF positionType intervalType baseLocationType.BeginEnd)
DOMAIN: baseLocationType

BEGIN

The start of a sequence interval.

CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: INTEGER
DOMAIN: intervalType

BIBREF

A bibliographic reference

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: bibrefType
DOMAIN: experiment, source

BIBREFCHOICE

A choice of bibliographic reference

VALUE-TYPE: (ONE-OF xrefType attributeListType)
DOMAIN: bibrefType

CELLTYPE

A cell type

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: openCvType
DOMAIN: bioSourceType

CHOICE.1

A choice of sequence location

VALUE-TYPE: (ONE-OF positionType intervalType)
DOMAIN: baseLocationType.BeginEnd

CHOICE.2

A choice of sequence location

VALUE-TYPE: (ONE-OF positionType intervalType)
DOMAIN: baseLocationType.BeginEnd

CLASS-DESIGN-RATIONALE

Describes the design rationale for this frame or slot.

INHERITANCE-TYPE: UNIQUE
VALUE-TYPE: STRING
DOMAIN: THING

CLASS-NAME-SYNONYMS

Synonym for the name of the frame or slot.

INHERITANCE-TYPE: UNIQUE
VALUE-TYPE: STRING
DOMAIN: THING

COMMENT

Comment about the frame this slot is part of.

INHERITANCE-TYPE: UNIQUE
VALUE-TYPE: STRING
DOMAIN: THING

COMPARTMENT

A cellular compartment. The Gene Ontology cellular component controlled vocabulary should be used here.

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: openCvType
DOMAIN: bioSourceType

CONFIDENCE

Statistical confidence

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: confidenceContainer
DOMAIN: interaction, experiment

CONTROLLED

The entity that is controlled (e.g for a biochemical reaction, this would be a reaction).

VALUE-TYPE: entity
DOMAIN: control

CONTROLLER

The controlling entity (e.g for a biochemical reaction, this would be an enzyme)

VALUE-TYPE: entity
DOMAIN: control

DB

A database name

CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: STRING
DOMAIN: dbReferenceType

DB-VERSION

A database version

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: STRING
DOMAIN: dbReferenceType

DELTA-G

Standard Gibbs free energy change for a reaction (see notes in individual class definitions).

VALUE-TYPE: LIST
DOMAIN: biochemicalReaction

DELTA-H

Standard enthalpy change for a reaction (see notes in individual class definitions).

VALUE-TYPE: NUMBER
DOMAIN: biochemicalReaction

DELTA-S

Standard entropy change for a reaction (see notes in individual class definitions).

VALUE-TYPE: NUMBER
DOMAIN: biochemicalReaction

EC-NUMBER

The number assigned to a reaction by the Enzyme Commission.

Note that not all biochemical reactions currently have EC numbers assigned to them.

VALUE-TYPE: STRING
DOMAIN: biochemicalReaction

END

The end of a sequence interval.

CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: INTEGER
DOMAIN: intervalType

ENTITIES

A list of entities

VALUE-TYPE: entity
DOMAIN: co-occurrence, equivalenceClass

ENTRIES

A set of entries. This is the top-level packaging class in the ontology.

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
VALUE-TYPE: entry
DOMAIN: entrySet

EXPERIMENTLIST

A list of supporting experiments

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: experiment
DOMAIN: interaction

FEATUREDESCRIPTION

The description of a feature. A feature is some part of a physicalEntity (e.g. a domain on a protein, a functional group on a small molecule)

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: cvType
DOMAIN: feature

FEATUREDETECTION

Experimental method used to detect this feature

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: cvType
DOMAIN: feature, experiment

FULLNAME

A full name

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: STRING
DOMAIN: namesType

GENES

A list of genes interacting

VALUE-TYPE: dna
DOMAIN: genetic

HOSTORGANISM

The host organism this experiment was performed in

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: bioSourceType
DOMAIN: experiment

ID

A database identifier

CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: STRING
DOMAIN: dbReferenceType

INTERACTIONDETECTION

The experimental method used to detect this interaction

CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: cvType
DOMAIN: experiment

INTERACTIONLIST

A list of interactions

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: interaction
DOMAIN: entry

INTERACTIONS

A list of interactions in this pathway

VALUE-TYPE: interaction
DOMAIN: pathway

INTERACTIONTYPE

The type of interaction (from a small controlled vocabulary of interaction types) e.g. phosphorylation. This is meant to be used as a descriptive name for the interaction that would be useful for browsing or database searches.

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: cvType
DOMAIN: interaction

KEQ

The reaction equilibrium constant (see notes under individual reaction subclass definitions).

VALUE-TYPE: NUMBER
DOMAIN: biochemicalReaction

LEFT

The left hand value in the conversion process (e.g. the reactants in a biochemical reaction)

VALUE-TYPE: entity
DOMAIN: conversion

LEVEL

The level of this ontology (e.g. Level 1, version 1)

VALUE-TYPE: INTEGER
DOMAIN: entrySet

NAME

The name of this attribute

CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: STRING
DOMAIN: attributeListType

NAMES

Name(s)

VALUE-TYPE: namesType
DOMAIN: entity, bioSourceType, experiment, source

NAMES.REQ

Name(s)

CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: namesType
DOMAIN: openCvType, cvType

NCBITAXID

The NCBI taxonomy ID for this organism

CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: INTEGER
DOMAIN: bioSourceType

ORGANISM

The organismal source

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: bioSourceType
DOMAIN: dna, rna, protein

PARTICIPANTDETECTION

Experimental method used to detect the participant in the interaction

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: cvType
DOMAIN: experiment

PARTICIPANTLIST

The entities participating in this association

VALUE-TYPE: entity
DOMAIN: molecularAssociation

POSITION

The position on a sequence (e.g. amino acid position 76)

CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: INTEGER
DOMAIN: positionType

PRIMARYREF

Primary external cross-reference

CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: dbReferenceType
DOMAIN: xrefType

REVERSIBILITY

This slot describes the reversibility and directionality of the reaction. Possible values are:

:REVERSIBLE -- The reaction can proceed in either direction.
:IR-L-R -- The reaction is known to be effectively irreversible, proceeding only in the left-to-right direction.
:IR-R-L -- The reaction is known to be effectively irreversible, proceeding only in the right-to-left direction.
:L-R -- The reaction may or may not be technically irreversible, but in biological situations occurs effectively only in the left-to-right direction.
:R-L -- The reaction may or may not be technically irreversible, but in biological situations occurs effectively only in the right-to-left direction.

MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: (ONE-OF REVERSIBLE L-R R-L IR-L-R IR-R-L)
DOMAIN: conversion

RIGHT

The right hand value in the conversion process (e.g. the products in a biochemical reaction)

VALUE-TYPE: entity
DOMAIN: conversion

SECONDARY

A secondary database identifier

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: STRING
DOMAIN: dbReferenceType

SECONDARYREF

Secondary external cross-references

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
VALUE-TYPE: dbReferenceType
DOMAIN: xrefType

SEQUENCE

Amino acid or nucleotide sequence in uppercase

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: STRING
DOMAIN: dna, rna, protein

SHORTLABEL

A short label. Short enough to be used in a visualization application to label a graphical element.

CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: STRING
DOMAIN: namesType

SLOT-NAME-SYNONYMS

 

DOMAIN: NIL

SOURCE

The source of this data

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: source
DOMAIN: entry

SPONTANEOUS

Specifies whether a reaction occurs spontaneously (i.e. uncatalyzed, under biological conditions) left-to-right, right-to-left, or not at all. An absence of a value for this slot implies that the reaction is not spontaneous, so the possible values need only distinguish between the two possible directions.

MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: (ONE-OF L-R R-L)
DOMAIN: biochemicalReaction

THOUGHT

Comment about how much thought has been invested in the design of this slot or frame.

INHERITANCE-TYPE: UNIQUE
VALUE-TYPE: STRING
DOMAIN: THING

TISSUE

An external controlled vocabulary of tissue types

MINIMUM-CARDINALITY: 0
MAXIMUM-CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: openCvType
DOMAIN: bioSourceType

UNIT

Unit of confidence

CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: STRING
DOMAIN: confidenceContainer

VALUE

Value of confidence

CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: STRING
DOMAIN: confidenceContainer

VERSION

The version of this ontology (e.g. Level 1, version 1)

VALUE-TYPE: INTEGER
DOMAIN: entrySet

XREF.REQ

An external cross-reference

CARDINALITY: 1
VALUE-TYPE: xrefType
DOMAIN: cvType