This web page was produced as an assignment for Genetics 564, an undergraduate course at UW‐Madison.
What is Gene Ontology?
An "ontology" is a formal specification of knowledge as a set of concepts within a domain, with the usage of universal standard terminology to denote the types, properties and relationships of those concepts. [1] The Gene Ontology (GO) project is a bioinformatics effort to standardize the representation of gene product attributes across all species. [2]
GO covers three aspects:
GO covers three aspects:
- molecular function — the activities of a gene product at the molecular level;
- biological process — serial events carried out by the gene product at the cellular, tissue, and organism level;
- cellular component — the location of a gene product inside the cell and its surrounding. [2]
Molecular function of human MAOA
Biological processes of human MAOA
- cellular biogenic amine metabolic process (GO:0006576)
- catecholamine metabolic process (GO:0006584)
- xenobiotic metabolic process (GO:0006805)
- synaptic transmission (GO:0007268)
- neurotransmitter secretion (GO:0007269)
- neurotransmitter catabolic process (GO:0042135)
- neurotransmitter biosynthetic process (GO:0042136)
- dopamine catabolic process (GO:0042420)
- small molecule metabolic process (GO:0044281)
- oxidation-reduction process (GO:0055114)
Cellular components of human MAOA
Discussion
The above three GO aspects of human MAOA protein visualized using AMIGO2 concurs with the existing knowledge about its roles: MAOA is an enzyme in charge of catalyzing the oxidative deamination of biogenic and xenobiotic amines, positioned at the outer mitochondrial membrane in neurons and astrocytes in the central nervous system to control both monoamine neurotransmitter availability for sequestration and the following synaptic transmission. [3]
References:
- Gruber, T. R. (1993). A translation approach to portable ontology specifications. Knowledge Acquisition 5(2): 199–220.
- The Gene Ontology. An Introduction to the Gene Ontology. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
- Buckholtz, J. W. & Meyer-Lindenberg, A. (2008). Maoa and the neurogenetic architecture of human aggression. Trends in Neurosciences, 31(3), 120-129.