Muscle Logic: New Knowledge Resource for Anatomy Enables Comprehensive Searches of the Literature on the Feeding Muscles of Mammals.
Humans; Animals; *Databases as Topic; Oropharynx/anatomy & histology; Pharyngeal Muscles/*anatomy & histology; Search Engine
BACKGROUND: In recent years large bibliographic databases have made much of the published literature of biology available for searches. However, the capabilities of the search engines integrated into these databases for text-based bibliographic searches are limited. To enable searches that deliver the results expected by comparative anatomists, an underlying logical structure known as an ontology is required. DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF THE ONTOLOGY: Here we present the Mammalian Feeding Muscle Ontology (MFMO), a multi-species ontology focused on anatomical structures that participate in feeding and other oral/pharyngeal behaviors. A unique feature of the MFMO is that a simple, computable, definition of each muscle, which includes its attachments and innervation, is true across mammals. This construction mirrors the logical foundation of comparative anatomy and permits searches using language familiar to biologists. Further, it provides a template for muscles that will be useful in extending any anatomy ontology. The MFMO is developed to support the Feeding Experiments End-User Database Project (FEED, https://feedexp.org/), a publicly-available, online repository for physiological data collected from in vivo studies of feeding (e.g., mastication, biting, swallowing) in mammals. Currently the MFMO is integrated into FEED and also into two literature-specific implementations of Textpresso, a text-mining system that facilitates powerful searches of a corpus of scientific publications. We evaluate the MFMO by asking questions that test the ability of the ontology to return appropriate answers (competency questions). We compare the results of queries of the MFMO to results from similar searches in PubMed and Google Scholar. RESULTS AND SIGNIFICANCE: Our tests demonstrate that the MFMO is competent to answer queries formed in the common language of comparative anatomy, but PubMed and Google Scholar are not. Overall, our results show that by incorporating anatomical ontologies into searches, an expanded and anatomically comprehensive set of results can be obtained. The broader scientific and publishing communities should consider taking up the challenge of semantically enabled search capabilities.
Druzinsky Robert E; Balhoff James P; Crompton Alfred W; Done James; German Rebecca Z; Haendel Melissa A; Herrel Anthony; Herring Susan W; Lapp Hilmar; Mabee Paula M; Muller Hans-Michael; Mungall Christopher J; Sternberg Paul W; Van Auken Kimberly; Vinyard Christopher J; Williams Susan H; Wall Christine E
PloS one
2016
1905-7
Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149102" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1371/journal.pone.0149102</a>
A preliminary analysis of correlations between chewing motor patterns and mandibular morphology across mammals.
*Mastication; Animals; Biological Evolution; Bite Force; Electromyography; Feeding Behavior/physiology; Jaw/anatomy & histology/*physiology; Mammals/anatomy & histology/physiology; Masseter Muscle/anatomy & histology/*physiology; Phylogeny; Temporal Muscle/anatomy & histology/*physiology
The establishment of a publicly-accessible repository of physiological data on feeding in mammals, the Feeding Experiments End-user Database (FEED), along with improvements in reconstruction of mammalian phylogeny, significantly improves our ability to address long-standing questions about the evolution of mammalian feeding. In this study, we use comparative phylogenetic methods to examine correlations between jaw robusticity and both the relative recruitment and the relative time of peak activity for the superficial masseter, deep masseter, and temporalis muscles across 19 mammalian species from six orders. We find little evidence for a relationship between jaw robusticity and electromyographic (EMG) activity for either the superficial masseter or temporalis muscles across mammals. We hypothesize that future analyses may identify significant associations between these physiological and morphological variables within subgroups of mammals that share similar diets, feeding behaviors, and/or phylogenetic histories. Alternatively, the relative peak recruitment and timing of the balancing-side (i.e., non-chewing-side) deep masseter muscle (BDM) is significantly negatively correlated with the relative area of the mandibular symphysis across our mammalian sample. This relationship exists despite BDM activity being associated with different loading regimes in the symphyses of primates compared to ungulates, suggesting a basic association between magnitude of symphyseal loads and symphyseal area among these mammals. Because our sample primarily represents mammals that use significant transverse movements during chewing, future research should address whether the correlations between BDM activity and symphyseal morphology characterize all mammals or should be restricted to this "transverse chewing" group. Finally, the significant correlations observed in this study suggest that physiological parameters are an integrated and evolving component of feeding across mammals.
Vinyard Christopher J; Williams Susan H; Wall Christine E; Doherty Alison H; Crompton Alfred W; Hylander William L
Integrative and comparative biology
2011
2011-08
Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icr066" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1093/icb/icr066</a>