Need some help with TAIR/AGI_Locus_Name

[tberardini]

I'm writing from Phoenix Bioinformatics, which hosts The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR). At the request of the GO consortium, I was preparing to register a new prefix, agi_locus_code, for AGI Locus Codes (the standard Arabidopsis gene identifiers like AT1G01010). While doing so, I found that the existing tair.name entry already covers the format and URL pattern we'd want.

Since AGI Locus Codes are a community naming convention established by the Arabidopsis Genome Initiative and used well beyond TAIR, the current tair.name framing feels narrower than the identifier actually is. Rather than registering a new prefix, would it be possible to update the existing entry so that the prefix becomes agi_locus_code, the display name becomes "AGI Locus Code", and the description reflects the broader community origin?

Thanks for your consideration.

[nsjuty]

I'd suggest updating the description - generally the namespaces follow the name/pseudonyms of resolution site, and also don't contain underscores..

[tberardini]

Sorry, I mistyped and added one extra underscore. It should be agi_locuscode. Which entry would I be updating with respect to the description?

[vijayvenkateshs]

Hi Tanya,

Thanks for opening this issue regarding the request to change the tair.name identifier to ags_locus_code

To ensure stable URL resolution and maintain backwards compatibility for existing identifiers.org links, we cannot simply rename or delete an active namespace prefix. All existing URLs using tair.name should ideally continue to resolve. Additionally, out standard format prefers to have . instead of _, so the new prefix can be formatted as agi.locuscode or agi.locus.code instead of agi_locuscode. Please let me know if this is a good option and if we should update the prefix itself.

If the goal is to simply update the terminology, the cleanest option is to update the Name and description on the existing tair.name record to reflect ags_locus_code. The actual prefix used in the URLs will remain unchanged, preventing any broken links.

If a new prefix is required, we can deactivate the old prefix and create a completely new resource entry with ags.locus_code. This will make sure that that tair.name link will still resolve but the namespace will be deactivated with users encouraged to use the new prefix. We can also update the description of tair.name to clearly state that it is depricated and direct users to the new prefix.

Regardless of which route we take, I also want to mention that there are multiple other tair namespaces as well in Identifiers.org like tair.name, tair.locus, tair.gene and tair.protein. ( https://registry.identifiers.org/registry?query=tair). Should these also be updated in accordance with the update of tair.name to agi_locuscode. If so can you please let us know how it should be updated as well

Please let us know if you would prefer to just update the metadata on the existing prefix or if we should proceed with deactivating the old prefix and creating a new one

Best Regards,
Vijay Venkatesh Subramoniam
IdOrg team