MHC molecules form a highly diverse family of proteins that play a key role in cellular immune recognition. No consistent nomenclature exists across different vertebrate species. To correctly represent MHC related data in The Immune Epitope Database (IEDB), we built upon a previously established MHC ontology (MaHCO) and created MRO to represent MHC molecules as they relate to immunological experiments. MRO models MHC protein chains from 16 species, deals with different approaches used to identify MHC, such as direct sequencing verses serotyping, relates engineered MHC molecules to naturally occurring ones, connects genetic loci, alleles, protein chains and multichain proteins, and establishes evidence codes for MHC restriction.
immune system major histocompatibility complex