Publications
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RKB: A Semantic Web Knowledge Base for RNA
Michel Dumontier, Jose Cruz-Toledo, Marc Parisien, Francois Major
Bio-ontologies 2009. Stockholm, Sweden
Download PDF.Abstract
Increasingly sophisticated knowledge about RNA structure and function requires an inclusive knowledge representation that facilitates the integration of independently-generated information arising from such efforts as genome sequencing projects, microarray analyses, structure determination and RNA SELEX experiments. While RNAML, an XML-based representation, has been proposed as an exchange format for a select subset of information, it lacks machine-understandable semantics that make it arbitrarily user-extensible, as is the case for formal logic based languages. Here, we describe an RNA knowledge base (RKB) for structure-based knowledge using RDF/OWL Semantic Web technologies. RKB contains basic terminology for nucleic acid composition along with context/model-specific representation of structural features such as sugar conformations, base pairings and base stackings. RKB is populated with RNA PDB entries and MC-Annotate structural annotation. The use of semantic web technologies addresses the reality of diverse interests of the RNA Ontology Consortium and supports knowledge discovery over independently-published RNA knowledge.