ECO, the Evidence & Conclusion Ontology: community standard for evidence information.

Journal: Nucleic acids research
Published Date:

Abstract

The Evidence and Conclusion Ontology (ECO) contains terms (classes) that describe types of evidence and assertion methods. ECO terms are used in the process of biocuration to capture the evidence that supports biological assertions (e.g. gene product X has function Y as supported by evidence Z). Capture of this information allows tracking of annotation provenance, establishment of quality control measures and query of evidence. ECO contains over 1500 terms and is in use by many leading biological resources including the Gene Ontology, UniProt and several model organism databases. ECO is continually being expanded and revised based on the needs of the biocuration community. The ontology is freely available for download from GitHub (https://github.com/evidenceontology/) or the project's website (http://evidenceontology.org/). Users can request new terms or changes to existing terms through the project's GitHub site. ECO is released into the public domain under CC0 1.0 Universal.

Authors

  • Michelle Giglio
    Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland, Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore MD, USA, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1 Rue Michel Servet, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland, Department of Medicine and Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore MD, USA, Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA, School of Information, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, 33647, USA, Genomics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, 1 Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley, 94720 CA USA, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK, Swiss-Prot Group, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Centre Medical Universitaire, Geneva, Switzerland, ETH Zurich, Department of Computer Science, Universitätstr. 19, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Universitätstr. 6, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland and University College London, Gower St, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
  • Rebecca Tauber
    Evidence and Conclusion Ontology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, W Baltimore St., Baltimore, MD, USA.
  • Suvarna Nadendla
    Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.
  • James Munro
    Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.
  • Dustin Olley
    Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.
  • Shoshannah Ball
    Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.
  • Elvira Mitraka
    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20037, USA, Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA, Center for Bioinformatics and Information Technology, National Cancer Institute, 9609 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20892-9760, USA, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA, Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, 9609 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20892-9760, USA, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK and McCormick Genomic and Proteomic Center, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20037, USA.
  • Lynn M Schriml
    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20037, USA, Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA, Center for Bioinformatics and Information Technology, National Cancer Institute, 9609 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20892-9760, USA, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA, Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, 9609 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20892-9760, USA, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK and McCormick Genomic and Proteomic Center, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20037, USA.
  • Pascale Gaudet
    Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland, Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore MD, USA, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1 Rue Michel Servet, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland, Department of Medicine and Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore MD, USA, Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA, School of Information, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, 33647, USA, Genomics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, 1 Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley, 94720 CA USA, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK, Swiss-Prot Group, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Centre Medical Universitaire, Geneva, Switzerland, ETH Zurich, Department of Computer Science, Universitätstr. 19, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Universitätstr. 6, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland and University College London, Gower St, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
  • Elizabeth T Hobbs
    Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA.
  • Ivan Erill
    Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA.
  • Deborah A Siegele
    Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA.
  • James C Hu
    Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University and Texas AgriLife Research, College Station, TX, 77843, USA.
  • Chris Mungall
    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
  • Marcus C Chibucos
    Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland, Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore MD, USA, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1 Rue Michel Servet, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland, Department of Medicine and Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore MD, USA, Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA, School of Information, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, 33647, USA, Genomics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, 1 Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley, 94720 CA USA, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK, Swiss-Prot Group, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Centre Medical Universitaire, Geneva, Switzerland, ETH Zurich, Department of Computer Science, Universitätstr. 19, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Universitätstr. 6, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland and University College London, Gower St, London WC1E 6BT, UK.