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One of these areas is the insistence of computer scientists on a well-defined semantic basis for the Knowledge Representation language being used. In this article, we will first describe why this community is so insistent. Second, we will illustrate this by examining the semantics of the Web Ontology Language and the semantics placed on the Directed Acyclic Graph as used by the Gene Ontology. Finally we will reconcile the two representations, including the broader Open Biomedical Ontologies format. The ability to exchange between the two representations means that we can capitalise on the features of both languages. Such utility can only arise by the understanding of the semantics of the languages being used. By this illustration of the usefulness of a clear, well-defined language semantics, we wish to promote a wider understanding of the computer science perspective amongst potential users within the biological community.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1186\/1471-2105-8-57","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2007,2,20]],"date-time":"2007-02-20T19:17:25Z","timestamp":1171999045000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":31,"title":["Understanding and using the meaning of statements in a bio-ontology: recasting the Gene Ontology in OWL"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"8","author":[{"given":"Mikel Ega\u00f1a","family":"Aranguren","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sean","family":"Bechhofer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Phillip","family":"Lord","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ulrike","family":"Sattler","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Robert","family":"Stevens","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2007,2,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"1429_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"25","DOI":"10.1038\/75556","volume":"25","author":"Gene Ontology Consortium","year":"2000","unstructured":"Gene Ontology Consortium: Gene Ontology: Tool for the Unification of Biology. 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