Biological Regulation

Regulation

Biological regulation is defined as any process that modulates the frequency, rate or extent of any biological process, quality or function.

The regulates relation

In addition to terms, the ontology uses the regulates relationship means that the term is a process that modulates its parent process. For example, regulation of transcription regulates transcription. The regulation of a process is not a part of the process itself. For example, regulation of transcription describes the processes that affect the transcriptional machinery to modulate its activity, but those processes are not necessarily involved in transcription.

More information about the regulates relation and its properties can be found in the GO relationship guide.

Terms and structure

Any biological process can be regulated, and that regulation may be further classified as positive or negative. The standard structure for the regulation of a process is:

Regulation terms are also be given parentage under the most specific regulation term in the general regulation hierarchy under regulation of biological process ; GO:0050789.

Regulation can also be applied to functions, such as enzyme reactions and binding to substances. These terms have is a parentage under the term regulation of molecular function. There will also be a corresponding term in the molecular function ontology; in the future, inter-ontology links will be made between these terms. For example:

GO also contains regulation terms representing the regulation of a phenotype rather than a process; for example, regulation of cell size ; GO:0008361 and regulation of neuronal synaptic plasticity ; GO:0048168. These terms have is a parentage to the regulation of biological quality ; GO:0065008. An example of parentage is shown below:

Note that it would not make sense to have a term of the form 'regulation of protein name', e.g. regulation of actin, because a protein is neither a process nor a function, so there is no indication of what biological activity is being regulated. If terms of this sort are desired, they should be given names that represent the actual biological processes or molecular functions that they regulate.

Positive regulation can be split into three subtypes, the initiation or start up of an inactive process, the maintenance of a process already occurring, and the increase in rate of an existing process. In GO, this distinction is captured by the terms 'activation of process', to represent the start up of a process, 'maintenance of process', and 'upregulation of process', the acceleration of an existing process.

Similarly, negative regulation can be split into the cessation or halting of a process and the decrease in rate, but not stopping, of a process, and the prevention of an inactive process from becoming active. GO represents this using the terms 'downregulation of process', 'termination of process' and 'inhibition of process' respectively.

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Standard definitions

regulation of process

Any process that modulates the frequency, rate or extent of process, [definition of process].

regulation of enzyme activity

Any process that modulates the frequency, rate or extent of enzyme activity, the catalysis of the reaction: [reaction].

regulation of function

Any process that modulates the frequency, rate or extent of function, [definition of function].

regulation of phenotype

Any process that modulates phenotype, [description of phenotype].

negative regulation of process

Any process that stops, prevents or reduces the frequency, rate or extent of process, [definition of process].
Can also be used with functions.

positive regulation of process

Any process that activates, maintains or increases the frequency, rate or extent of process, [definition of process].
Can also be used with functions.

activation of process

Any process that starts the inactive process process, [definition of process].
Can also be used with functions.

activation of enzyme activity

Any process that initiates the activity of the inactive enzyme enzyme name.
The initiation of the activity of the inactive enzyme enzyme name by process.

maintenance of process

Any process that maintains the frequency, rate or extent of the active process process, [definition of process].
Can also be used with functions.

maintenance of phenotype

Any process that maintains phenotype, [description of phenotype].

upregulation of process

Any process that increases the frequency, rate or extent of the active process process, [definition of process].
Can also be used with functions.

downregulation of process

Any process that reduces the frequency, rate or extent of, but does not terminate, the active process process, [definition of process].
Can also be used with functions.

inhibition of process

Any process that prevents the activation of the inactive process process, [definition of process].
Can also be used with functions.

termination of process

Any process that stops the active process process, [definition of process].
Can also be used with functions.

inactivation of enzyme activity

Any process that terminates the activity of the active enzyme enzyme name.
The termination of the activity of the active enzyme enzyme name by process.

Standard synonyms

The following synonyms can be added to terms as long as the synonym string makes sense and does not have alternative meanings.

regulation of process

narrow: process regulator

regulation of process

exact: control of process

activation of process

exact: establishment of process

broad: induction of process

activation of process by xxx

exact: xxx-induced process

inhibition of process

exact: prevention of process

downregulation of process

exact: suppression of process

termination of process

exact: inactivation of process

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