POC poster abstract for PAG

[Pankaj Jaiswal]

Hi Everyone,

Please go through the abstract for the PAG 2004 and make your suggestions. The
deadline for submission is tomorrow and I would like to have the final version
ready by tonight.

I am sorry for asking this at the last minute.

Many thanks
Pankaj

Title: The Plant Ontology Consortium

Authors: Lincoln Stein, Elizabeth Kellogg, Sue Rhee,  Susan McCouch,  Doreen
Ware,  Pankaj Jaiswal,  Peter Stevens, Leonore Reiser,  Leszek
Vincent, Mary Polacco, Marty Sachs, Filipe Zapata, Shuly Avraham.

The goals of the Plant Ontology Consortium are to develop a common set of
controlled vocabulary terms to describe anatomic and developmental stage terms
in both experimental and agronomically important plants.  We have started with
Arabidopsis and cereals such as rice and maize, and later extend this ontology
to encompass legumes, Solanaceae, and other plant families.  Concurrently, these
terms will be applied to the task of describing the genes and mutants that are
contained within the plant specific databases maintained by the participating
institutions, thereby simultaneously refining the ontologies, and providing
points of reference with which to compare the genes and mutants across these
species. The broader impact of this project is that it will provide a framework
of plant development to allow researchers to make meaningful cross database
queries across the various species specific resources such as Gramene, TAIR,
MaizeGDB, PlantGDB, etc. in order to discover patterns of similarities and
dissimilarities involved in plant development. For example, researchers will be
able to obtain a definitive list of genes whose action affects plant stem
development.  The development and implementation of plant ontology will allow
the fruits of research in one plant species to be more easily used in the study
of other species, leading to a greater understanding of plant biology.
The project is supported by National Science Foundation grant No. 0321666 to the
Plant Ontology Consortium.