Adding Term Comments

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  • All terms have a single, optional comment field for adding extra information about an entry, for example to further explain their intended usage.
  • Wherever possible, use standard language for similar types of comments and suggestions for alternative terms to use.
  • Some examples of comments, and standard language for their usage, are:


General rule

Comments usually start with:

comment: Note that [comment].

Referring to other terms in the ontologies

Use the following format:

comment: Also see '[term name] ; GO:0000000'.

Do Not Annotate

 This term should not be used for direct annotation. It should be possible to make a more specific annotation to one of the children of this term.

Example: GO:0006810 transport: Note that this term should not be used for direct annotation. It should be possible to make a more specific annotation to one of the children of this term, for e.g. transmembrane transport, microtubule-based transport, vesicle-mediated transport, etc.

Do Not Manually Annotate

 This term should not be used for direct manual annotation. It should be possible to make a more specific manual annotation to one of the children of this term.

Example: GO:0000910 cytokinesis: Note that this term should not be used for direct annotation. When annotating eukaryotic species, mitotic or meiotic cytokinesis should always be specified for manual annotation and for prokaryotic species use ‘FtsZ-dependent cytokinesis; GO:0043093’ or ‘Cdv-dependent cytokinesis; GO:0061639’. Also, note that cytokinesis does not necessarily result in physical separation and detachment of the two daughter cells from each other.

Comment syntax for obsoletions

See [Possible_reasons_for_obsoletion]]


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Review Status

Last reviewed: May 24, 2017

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