Gene Ontology

Biological Process
A biological process is a recognized series of events or molecular functions. A biological process is not equivalent to a pathway, although some GO terms do describe pathways. Mutant phenotypes often reflect disruptions in biological processes.


Cellular Component
The cellular component ontology describes locations, at the levels of subcellular structures and macromolecular complexes. Examples of cellular components include nuclear inner membrane, with the synonym inner envelope, and the ubiquitin ligase complex, with several subtypes of these complexes represented.

Generally, a gene product is located in or is a subcomponent of a particular cellular component. The cellular component ontology includes multi-subunit enzymes and other protein complexes, but not individual proteins or nucleic acids. Cellular component also does not include multicellular anatomical terms.


Molecular Function
The functions of a gene product are the jobs that it does or the "abilities" that it has. These may include transporting things around, binding to things, holding things together and changing one thing into another. This is different from the biological processes the gene product is involved in, which involve more than one activity.