Dear subscribers to TDWG-SDD

On Jan. 31, 2000 I sent an email to you (copy below) about developing a containment hierarchy for Maize & expanding this to include the rest of the Poaceae and hopefully subsequently the rest of the monocots & dicots (via interoperable ontologies).

I'm presenting some of this work at the next Maize Genetics Conference (March) [http://www.agron.missouri.edu/Coop/Conf/2000.html] & include a copy of the abstract below F.Y.I.

-------------- Conference abstract:

Developing systematic descriptors and containment hierarchies for maize

The Systematic Descriptors component of the Missouri Maize Project is aiming to provide descriptors in appropriate 'containment hierarchies' (biological terms, their relationships and associations) for maize. We wish to design a structure that has wide contribution from scientists studying maize and many other plant species. Databases comprising all sorts of information on monocots and dicots will need to be increasingly interoperable to facilitate future concurrent searches of these databases and so be helpful to a wide range of end-users. Developing systematic descriptors in containment hierarchies which accommodate maize data is a challenge on its own. But developing a structure that can accommodate present and future data from other monocot and dicot taxa, is another very relevant and stimulating challenge. An overview has been developed and the framework is forming. We are seeking feedback on the framework and content. NSF award 9872655. -----------------------

For further info. on this project please access: http://www.agron.missouri.edu/mnl/74/89vincent.html - a publication in the Maize News Letter.

Should you have any comments, suggestions... about the development of containment hierarchies for maize (in a formal ontology) and the subsequent development of interoperable ontologies, I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for your time.

Sincerely, - Leszek Vincent ========================

Text of email of Jan. 31:

Dear subscribers to TDWG

I've been 'listening' to the contributions on Lexicons, XML etc. for a while now and thought I should seek your comments because your contributions have sparked several developments in my thinking. I'm wrestling with the development of a hierarchy (containment hierarchies) of systematic descriptors for corn/maize/ Zea mays for the Missouri Maize Project (see URLs below). While this is challenging for maize/corn on its own, an added challenge is my desire to develop containment hierarchies which are compatible with databases for other grass crops e.g. rice (Oryza). To add to the challenge I have the ideal of trying to accommodate the 'interests' of similar databases for various DICOT crops e.g. soybean, cotton. While I do appreciate that such an all encompassing approach is maybe impossible to achieve I thought that it would still be good to get some other folks opinions on this. Having some kind of 'generic' structure which accommodates monocots & dicots should greatly facilitate the interoperability of these databases. It's the interoperability scenario which really got me on to thinking about this issue. Conducting simultaneous searches of dicot & monocot databases for morphological data down to molecular (e.g. sequence) data is not too far fetched. But I'm battling to find info. which addresses/refers to such 'generic' standards.

I'd be grateful to have your thoughts on the above. ========================

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox P. Leszek D. Vincent Ph.D., FLS Plant Science Unit, Dept. of Agronomy, 209 Curtis Hall, University of Missouri-Columbia, MO 65211-7020, USA. Ph: (573) 884-3716 (Agronomy), (573) Fax:(573) 884-7850; Ph/Fax (Home): (573) 441-1228; Email: Leszek@missouri.edu Plant Systematist on the Missouri Maize Project - NSF award 9872655 - (http://www.cafnr.missouri.edu/mmp/ and http://www.agron.missouri.edu/) xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox