Rough guidelines for when to pre- or post-compose phenotype terms with condition information

Most phenotypes are defined independently of any experimental conditions, since we can annotate conditions separately. There are a few exceptions, however, in which condition information is included as one of the features of a pre-composed term, usually for things that users will want to find easily, e.g. "temperature sensitive".

• Always pre-compose:
  • any sensitive to chemical other than N or C source
  • any resistant to chemical other than N or C source

• Always post-compose (i.e. capture conditions at annotation time, not as part of a complicated phenotype term)
  • anything other than viable/inviable (or growth/no growth/death) at high temperature
  • anything other than viable/inviable (or growth/no growth/death) at low temperature
  • presence or absence of chemicals with phenotypes other than population growth sensitivity/resistance

• Grey areas - phenotypes curators haven't felt sure about, but are leaving in place until/unless problems crop up [updated 2013-01-07, 2013-09-06]
  • viable/inviable (or growth/no growth/death) on specific carbon source
  • anything during starvation for a specific nutrient/limiting [stuff]
  • growth at [whatever] pH, e.g. FYPO:0001157 increased cell growth rate at high pH
  • viable/inviable or population growth at high or low temperature (aka sensitive/resistant to heat/cold)
    • discussing whether to make a pre/post distinction along cell vs. population lines

• Other outstanding issues
  • in vitro enzyme assays, with inhibitors (e.g. ​SF #238)
    • no terms included yet (last updated 2013-01-07)

• Other decisions (archived)
  • As of 2013-11-04, decided to use conditions for aerobic/semi-aerobic/anaerobic where FYPO term mentions carbon source.

updated 2012-06-15, 2013-01-07, 2013-09-06, 2013-11-04, 2015-04-10 mah