Differences among cell-structure ontologies: FMA, GO, & CCO.

When different groups create models or ontologies of the same knowledge domain, this creates challenges for knowledge sharing. To identify these challenges, we compare cellular structure as modeled by the Foundational Model of Anatomy(FMA), the Gene Ontology (GO), and the Cell Component Ontology (CCO). These ontologies all model the physical anatomy of a cell, and we expected them to be similar in scope. However, we discovered that the actual differences among the mare substantial. These differences represent variations based on theory-driven vs. emergent construction,as well as differences in how small application ontologies like the CCO are created from reference ontologies. In this paper, we provide a description and analysis of these differences. By studying differences in language, granularity, breadth of coverage,and model organization, we hope to gain a better understanding of how to map between related ontologies.