Overview of VFB queries

All anatomy pages have a number of canned queries, driven from the menu bar. Queries are tailored to the type of entity: neuron, neuropil, tract or clone. Queries can be divided into 3 types:

1. Expresssion/phenotype queries:

These begin with an OWL query to find relevant anatomical structures. This has two component queries:

• a query for all parts of X (part_of some X)
• a query for all cells that have some part in X (overlaps some X)

The resulting list is then used to query a copy of the FlyBase CHADO database to find all relevant genetic features. For each result, a query of our OWL knowledge-base finds relevant images to display.

2. Anatomy queries:

These are direct OWL queries, utilizing the semantics of our OWL model of Drosophila anatomy.

Neuropil queries:

• neuron that overlaps some X
  • neuron that has_synaptic_terminals_in some X
    • neuron that has_presynaptic_terminals_in some X
    • neuron that has_postsynaptic_terminals_in some X
• 'neuroblast lineage clone' that overlaps some X

Tract queries:

• neuron that fasciculates_with some X

neuroblast lineage clone queries

• neuron that part_of some X (for component neurons)

3. Anatomical Image queries:

These are queries of our OWL knowledgeBase. They are currently limited to queries for neurons by the regions they overlap. Results are pre-clustered by shape using our unique neuronBlast system.