Go, go, go .... the new Ensembl ontology database and API

Starting with release 55 of Ensembl we provide an ensembl_ontology database. It replaces the older ensembl_go database which used to be loaded straight from the public table dumps provided by the Gene Ontology group (and hence wasn't really an Ensembl database to start with). The associated API is now part of the Ensembl Core API, which should make working with GO terms in Ensembl more straightforward than it was in the past. Available methods include, amongst others, fetching all parent or child terms of a given GO term and fetching all genes, transcripts or translations annotated with a given GO term.

More detailed documentation on both database and API can be found at ensembl/misc-scripts/ontology/README.

Credit for developing the ensembl_ontology database and API goes to Andreas Kahari of the Ensembl Software team.