Cell signaling networks ontology.

Although databases for cell signaling pathways include numbers of reaction data of the pathways, the reaction data cannot be used yet to deduce biological functions from them. For the deduction, we need systematic and consistent interpretation of biological functions of reactions in cell signaling pathways in the context of "information transmission". To address this issue, we have developed a functional ontology for cell signaling pathways, Cell Signaling Network Ontology (CSN-Ontology), which provides framework for the functional interpretation presenting some important concepts as information, selectivity, movability, and signaling rules including passage of time.