In addition to the information captured by biotype and status, controlled vocabulary attributes are attached to both transcripts and loci. They are used to describe other features relevant to the structure or functional annotation of a transcript. Attributes may be subdivided into three main categories: those that explain features related to splicing, those related to the translation of the transcript, and those related to the transcriptional evidence used to build the transcript model. For a comprehensive list of all attributes along with the definitions used in the GENCODE annotation, see the landscape Supplemental Tables. Where further explanation of annotation is required, free text remarks are added. New controlled vocabulary is developed wherever possible so that annotation text strings can be searched computationally.
