Definition/parentage of "ionic insulation of neurons..."

[gocentral]

I think there may be missing parentage in terms representing nerve ensheathement.

GO:0042552: 'myelination', defined as: "The process by which oligodendrocytes in the brain and spinal cord and Schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system wrap axons with compact layers of their plasma membrane. Adjacent myelin segments are separated by a non-myelinated stretch of axon called a node of Ranvier."

GO:0007272: 'ionic insulation of neurons by glial cells' is currently undefined. I would provide the following definition for this term..

The process whereby glial cells envelop neuronal cell bodies and/or axons to form and insulating layer. This can take the form of myelinating or non-myelinating ensheathement.

Based on these definitions, I think 'myelination' should be a child of 'ionic insulation of neurons by glial cells'.

An alternative/additional element here is the placement of GO:0007272 'ionic insulation of neurons by glial cells'. This term has terms like 'signal transduction' and 'intracellular signaling cascade' as a parent. This seems a little bit odd to me. Perhaps parentage of GO:0007272 needs to be adjusted?

-Doug

Reported by: doughowe

Original Ticket: "geneontology/ontology-requests/2002":https://sourceforge.net/p/geneontology/ontology-requests/2002

[gocentral]

Logged In: YES user_id=436423

What do you recommend for parentage of GO:0007272? Should we just remove the 'regulation of action potential' (GO:0001508) parent? That would take the signal transduction business along with it.

m

Original comment by: mah11

[gocentral]

Logged In: YES user_id=451873

Added Doug's suggested definition for GO:0007272, and made it a child of 'cellular nerve ensheathment ; GO:0042553'. Made 'myelination ; GO:0042552' a child of GO:0007272 as suggested.

I agree that we should just remove 'regulation of action potential' as a parent of GO:0007272 - shall we go ahead and do that Doug?

Original comment by: jl242

[gocentral]

Logged In: YES user_id=835115

I'm having second thoughts about removing "regulation of action potential'. Myelination is critical for long distance propagation of action potentials in large diameter axons. This seems entirely consistent with the defintion of 'regulation of action potential', which states "Any process that modulates the frequency, rate or extent of action potential creation, propagation or termination." So I think this part is OK. There are some questionable things higher up though.

Specifically, having "signal transduction" (GO:0007165) upstream of myelination doesn't make sense to me. Also having "neuromuscular physiological process" (GO:0050905) and "organismal movement" (GO:0050879) upstream of myelination only makes sense for myelination of motor axons..and even then may be a little dubious. There are plenty of myelinated axons that are not related to motor activity.

Could we remove the relationship between "regulation of action potential" (GO:0001308) and "intracellular signaling cascade" (GO:0007242)? And also replace the relationship between "transmission of nerve impulse" (GO:0019226) and "neuromuscular physiological process" (GO:0050877) with a relationship directly to "neurophysiological process" (GO:0050877)?

This action would remove the neuromuscular and organismal movement elements, and also remove the parentage to signal transdcuction.

-Doug

Original comment by: doughowe

[gocentral]

• status: open --> closed-fixed

Original comment by: mah11

[gocentral]

Logged In: YES user_id=436423

both changes in parentage made ... looks like this one is done.

Original comment by: mah11

[gocentral]

Logged In: YES user_id=835115

Looks good to me. Thanks Midori.

-Doug

Original comment by: doughowe