Parkinson's Gene Ontology Annotation Initiative
This initiative ( http://www.ucl.ac.uk/functional-gene-annotation/neurological), led by Dr Ruth Lovering, represents a collaboration between University College London and the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), funded by Parkinson’s UK.
The Gene Ontology (GO) vocabulary is the accepted standard for the functional annotation of proteins. By using GO to curate scientific literature and by integrating results from high-throughput experiments we are creating an information-rich resource for the Parkinson’s research community, enabling researchers to rapidly evaluate and interpret existing data and generate hypotheses to guide future research.
People involved:
| Principal Investigator | Dr Ruth Lovering, Centre for Cardiovascular Genetics, Institute of Cardiovascular Science, UCL. |
| Co-applicants | Professor John Hardy, Department of Molecular Neuroscience, Institute of
Neurology, UCL. Dr Paul Denny, Centre for Cardiovascular Genetics, Institute of Cardiovascular Science, UCL. Dr Maria Martin, Protein Function Development, EMBL-EBI. |
| GO annotators | Dr Ruth Lovering, Dr Rebecca Foulger, Dr Paul Denny, Dr Barbara Kramarz |
| UniProt-GOA programmer | Tony Sawford |
Over 200 Parkinson’s-relevant genes have been identified as targets for annotation with GO terms. Genes from this list are being prioritised, in close consultation with an expert advisory panel, based on criteria such as involvement in neurological processes or disease and requests from the Parkinson’s community. If you have any suggestions for additional targets, please email GOAnnotations@ucl.ac.uk .
Target List
We have two current lists of proteins being prioritised for annotation by the Parkinson’s Gene Ontology Annotation Initiative:
The first is a high-priority set of Parkinson's Disease-relevant proteins selected based on evidence from genetic linkage or association studies.
Further proteins were selected for annotation based on evidence that these proteins either interact with the high-priority proteins or are associated with processes relevant to Parkinson’s Disease, such as ‘response to oxidative stress’ and ‘dopamine metabolism’.
All prioritised proteins are available as a combined list and can be used as a filter option in the QuickGO browser Gene Product ID tab (ParkinsonsUK-UCL).