The GO Annotation Competition is upon us!

If you are annotating phage genomes this Spring, you might be interested in an exciting inter-campus Gene Ontology (GO) annotation competition devoted to phage genomes and hosted by Texas A&M University. Last year, 4 SEA-PHAGES campuses joined the competition.

GO annotations are formal statements about the function/role/location of a gene product (e.g. protein X has glucosidase activity or protein Y is part of the phage tail baseplate). As part of the competition, students have to find literature sources providing experimental evidence of a given function/role/location for a phage gene product and enter the annotation using the wiki-based interface. These annotations can be challenged and corrected by students from other campuses and instructors, and students must revise them to earn full credit. Once completed, annotations are submitted to the GO repository for everybody to see and use.

Performing GO annotations in a competitive setting is a great way to have students read, parse and distill a scientific manuscript into the elementary units of knowledge it contributes. If you are interested in participating, please contact Steve Caruso (scaruso@umbc.edu) or Ivan Erill (erill@umbc.edu) of UMBC for more information. They have abundant training material to share with you.