Crowdsourcing biocuration: The Community Assessment of Community Annotation with Ontologies (CACAO)

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009463
• Publication Date: 2021-10-28T17:24:42Z
• Authors: Jolene Ramsey; Brenley McIntosh; Daniel Renfro; Suzanne A. Aleksa...; Sandra LaBonte; Curtis Ross; Adrienne E. Zweifel; Nathan Liles; Shabnam Farrar; Jason J. Gill; Ivan Erill; Sarah Ades; Tanya Z. Berardini; Jennifer A. Bennett; Siobhan Brady; Robert Britton; Seth Carbon; Steven M. Caruso; Dave Clements; Ritu Dalia; Meredith Defelice; Erin L. Doyle; Iddo Friedberg; Susan M. R. Gurney; Lee Hughes; Allison Johnson; Jason M. Kowalski; Donghui Li; Ruth C. Lovering; Tamara L. Mans; Fiona McCarthy; Sean D. Moore; Rebecca Murphy; Timothy D. Paustian; Sarah Perdue; Celeste N. Peterson; Birgit M. Prüß; Margaret S. Saha; Robert R. Sheehy; John T. Tansey; Louise Temple; Alexander William...; Saul Trevino; Amy Cheng Vollmer; Virginia Walbot; Joanne Willey; Deborah A. Siegele; James C. Hu
• Keywords: Crowdsourcing; Pace; Scientific literature

Experimental data about gene functions curated from the primary literature have enormous value for research scientists in understanding biology. Using Gene Ontology (GO), manual curation by experts has provided an important resource studying function, especially within model organisms. Unprecedented expansion of scientific and validation predicted proteins increased both challenges keeping pace. Capturing literature-based functional annotations is limited ability biocurators to handle massive rapidly growing literature. Within community-oriented wiki framework GO annotation called Normal Usage Tracking System (GONUTS), we describe approach expand biocuration through crowdsourcing with undergraduates. This multiplies number high-quality international databases, enriches our coverage on normal pushes field new directions. From intercollegiate competition judged experienced biocurators, Community Assessment Annotation Ontologies (CACAO), contributed nearly 5,000 annotations. Many those are organisms not currently well-represented GO. Over a 10-year history, community contributors spurred changes ontology traditionally covered professional biocurators. The CACAO principle relying members participate shape future powerful scalable used promote enterprise. It also provides undergraduate students unique enriching introduction critical reading acquisition marketable skills.