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Abstract:
With the advent of advanced molecular meta-omics techniques and methods,
a new era commenced for analysing and characterizing historic collection
specimens, as well as recently collected environmental samples. Nucleic
acid and protein sequencing-based analyses are increasingly applied to
determine the origin, identity and traits of environmental (biological)
objects and organisms. In this context, the need for new data structures
is evident and former approaches for data processing need to be expanded
according to the new meta-omics techniques and operational standards.
Existing schemas and community standards in the biodiversity and
molecular domain concentrate on terms important for data exchange and
publication. Detailed operational aspects of origin and laboratory as
well as object and data management issues are frequently neglected.
Meta-omics Data and Collection Objects (MOD-CO) has therefore been set
up as a new schema for meta-omics research, with a hierarchical
organization of the concepts describing collection samples, as well as
products and data objects being generated during operational workflows.
It is focussed on object trait descriptions as well as on operational
aspects and thereby may serve as a backbone for R&D laboratory
information management systems with functions of an electronic
laboratory notebook. The schema in its current version 1.0 includes 653
concepts and 1810 predefined concept values, being equivalent to
descriptors and descriptor states, respectively. It is published in
several representations, like a Semantic Media Wiki publication with
2463 interlinked Wiki pages for concepts and concept values, being
grouped in 37 concept collections and subcollections. The SQL database
application DiversityDescriptions, a generic tool formaintaining
descriptive data and schemas, has been applied for setting up and
testing MOD-CO and for concept mapping on elements of corresponding
schemas.
