expressed in response to

[dosumis]

The plant trait ontology people need to relate the expression of a trait to an environmental stimulus it is expressed in response to.

see https://github.com/Planteome/plant-trait-ontology/blob/add-dp/patterns/response.yaml

I don't believe we have a suitable relation.

If I understand correctly, an environmental stimulus is treated as a process and a trait is a realizable. If we could refer to the process in which this trait is realized, then the relation that holds between the two processes is a causal one (regulated_by or causally_downstream_of). We can hide this in a property chain:

label: expressed in response to def: "A 'expressed in response to' B iff, A is a realizable (e.g. a plant trait such as {add example} or a phenotypic quality such as eye color), B is an environmental stimulus (a process), and B regulates a process through which this trait is realized. Examples include environmental polymorphism in butterflies and {Add a plant example here } property_chain: realized in o regulated by -> expressed in response to

Possible issues:

• Not totally sure about choice of 'causally downstream of' vs 'regulated by' @cmungall - any opinion on this?
• Should this be made broader - to cover any regulation of a realizable by a process? In GO we overload regulates to cover regulation of qualities by processes. This is potentially problematic for the logical axiomatisation of these relations and is not consistent with the current definitions. However, by the name at least, this new relation seems more specific. membrane potential is not expressed in response to process that regulate it, its value is changed.

CC @marieALaporte @ukemi @cmungall

[nlharris]

Is this a request for a new relation, or were you able to get what you needed from the existing relations?

[nlharris]

@dosumis Is this still needed?