Practical Applications Of The Gene Ontology Resource

The Gene Ontology (GO) is a controlled vocabulary that represents knowledge about the functional attributes of gene products in a structured manner and can be used in both computational and human analyses. This vocabulary has been used by diverse curation groups to associate functional information to individual gene products in the form of annotations. GO has proven an invaluable resource for evaluating and interpreting the biological significance of large data sets, enabling researchers to create hypotheses to direct their future research. This chapter provides an overview of the Gene Ontology, how it can be used, and tips on getting the most out of GO analyses.