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Questions? Contact us at microbialphenotypes@gmail.com.

Welcome to the Microbial Phenotypes Wiki, Web-based community resource designed to display microbial phenotypes and the methods used to study them.
Phenotypes (OMP) Browse OMP Latest ontology versions Term issue tracker	Evidence & Conclusion Ontology Browse ECO ECO issue tracker ECO main repository Official ECO website ECO on BioPortal	Misc. Membership Phenotype Data browsers Shiver et al. (2020) Chemical-genetic interrogation of RNA polymerase mutants reveals structure-function relationships and physiological tradeoffs. BioRxiv Xia J et al. (2019) Bacteria-to-human protein networks reveal origins of endogenous DNA damage. Cell. 176:127-143.e24. Campos et al. (2018) Genomewide phenotypic analysis of growth, cell morphogenesis, and cell cycle events in Escherichia coli. Mol Syst Biol. 14(6):e7573. Price et al. (2018) Mutant phenotypes for thousands of bacterial genes of unknown function. Nature. 557(7706):503-509. Peters JM et al. (2016) A comprehensive, CRISPR-based functional analysis of essential genes in bacteria. Cell. 165:1493-1506. Nichols et al. (2010) Phenotypic landscape of a bacterial cell. Cell. 144:143-56. Fitness of 3,979 E. coli mutants in 324 growth conditions. Bug tracker for OMPwiki

What are microbial phenotypes & why do they need an ontology? A phenotype is the expression of a genotype (i.e. the full genetic complement of an organism) in a given environment. For example, eye color, number of seeds per pod, and coat color are phenotypic traits that can be observed in flies, lupines, and ponies, respectively. Within an individual organism, both changes in genetic makeup, such as from bacterial conjugation, and variation in gene expression can result in different phenotypes under similar environmental conditions. Conversely, environmental variation can lead to different outcomes for genetically identical organisms, through variable gene expression. Myriad genetically and taxonomically diverse microbes exhibit countless variability in their morphological and physiological traits, both within and among species. Oftentimes these result in unique and exquisite manifestations, such as the symbiosis between the bioluminescent Vibrio fischeri bacterium and its squid host Euprymna scolopes. Characterization of phenotypes is critically important for medical microbial identification, and many unique biotechnological applications of microbes are rooted in phenotypes. Genetic manipulation with associated phenotypic characterization remains an important tool for determining protein function in microorganisms amenable to manipulation, such as Escherichia coli. To facilitate research in all of these areas, we are developing the Ontology of Microbial Phenotypes to allow for standardized capture of essential phenotypic information.

News OMP February 2024 Release We are pleased to announce the February 2024 release of the Ontology of Microbial Phenotypes (OMP) is available at: https://github.com/microbialphenotypes/OMP-ontology/tree/master Search Pages of Interest Summary table of all entries in the phenotype tables. We are starting to collect information on methods. You can contribute to OMP by adding methods and/or references.