synonyms

[David Hill]

Hi Midori,

This does go beyond neurogenesis because we just discussed it about 
myogenesis as well. The issue is that there are cases like neurogenesis 
and myogenesis that are used in two ways in the community. One solution 
to this would be to create terms for each. In the case of neurogenesis, 
it would be to create a term "neurogeneis" that describes a 
neurobiologists strict definition of the term. We would also use 
neurogenesis as a synonym for a more global term describing the 
formation of nervous tissue, a developmental biologist's view of the 
term. Alternatively, we could have created two separate terms that both 
have synonyms neurogenesis. What are people's thoughts on this?

David

 Midori Harris wrote:

>Hi,
>
>Jen has brought it to my attention that this comment (made on SF 1262241) 
>should go to a wider audience, because neurogenesis is not the only term 
>affected:
>
>I've never been keen on using the same string as both a term name and a
>synonym (of any type/scope) for another term, because it gives a
>misleading impression that the two GO terms have the same meaning (if they
>did, they'd be merged). We've actively avoided doing it elsewhere in the
>ontologies, so it would be good to do the same for development-related
>terms.
>
>Admittedly, this is not in the synonym documentation, but it can easily be 
>added. One permissible exception is where one term is obsolete; an 
>obsolete term string may be used as a synonym for an 'active' term.
>
>Cheers
>Midori
>
>
>
>  
>


-- 
David P. Hill, Ph.D.
Senior Scientific Curator
Gene Expression Database
Gene Ontology Consortium
Mouse Genome Informatics
The Jackson Laboratory
600 Main Street
Bar Harbor, ME 04609-1500
tel:207-288-6430
htpp://www.informatics.jax.org