cmungall
commented
11 years ago MA subhierarchy around "back bone"
Original comment by: cmungall
Open cmungall opened 11 years ago
cmungall
commented
11 years ago MA subhierarchy around "back bone"
Original comment by: cmungall
cmungall
commented
11 years ago This is certainly a valid point. The term "back bone" was intended to represent any skeletal element in the back region. (Yes, I realize that a definition would be useful). It was envisioned that a general (e.g. phenotypic) description for "bones of the back" might potentially include reference to the scapula (http://www.informatics.jax.org/cookbook/figures/figure31.shtml) and/or dorsal parts of ribs (http://www.informatics.jax.org/cookbook/figures/figure32.shtml). I have seen this generalization used in describing human cases, but no evidence for its relevance in current mouse phenotypes or expression. Still, given the vagueness of descriptions in data sources, I question whether an annotator could assume the "bone of back" meant "vertebra" specifically.
Original comment by: tfhayamizu
cmungall
commented
11 years ago Original comment by: tfhayamizu
This is a slightly odd class. What does it mean exactly?
* "backbone" (no spaces) is sometimes used as a synonym for the entire vertebral column - which isn't a bone, it's a collection of bones
The MA class "back bone" includes "vertebral column" as a subclass, but also includes individual vertebrae as subtypes - see attached.
the MA class 'back bone' should probably be merged into MA:0000309 ! vertebra Similarly lower and upper back bone into lumbar and thoracic vertebra
If the intention is really to have a grouping class that includes the column and bones as subclasses, then the name might be better as "skeletal structure of back". But it's not clear why this would be necessary to have this grouping - having "vertebral column" as the part-parent seems fine.
Original comment by: cmungall
Original Ticket: obo/mouse-anatomy-requests/79