Uberon, An Integrative Gross Anatomy Ontology For Animals

Anatomical ontologies are computable representations of the structures that comprise organisms. A number of different anatomical ontologies have enabled the annotation of genomic, transcriptomic and phenomic data for select model organisms and humans. However, integrating this data has been challenging, and the field has been hampered by the lack of ontologies for non-model organisms.

Uberon is a multi-species ontology covering the gross anatomy of animals, from embryo to adult, with an emphasis on chordates. Here we describe how this ontology can be used for both annotation and analysis of diverse data sets. We also describe recent efforts bringing in other vertebrate cross-species anatomies, providing increased coverage of fish, avian and mammalian anatomy. The ontology is available from http://uberon.org.