identifier: traitmech:000162
label: amylase activity
definition: A physiological enzyme-activity phenotype in which a cell produces active
  amylolytic enzymes that hydrolyze starch.
definition_source: DOI:10.3389/fbioe.2020.00871
trait_category: PHYSIOLOGY
term_kind: CLASS
mapping_status: PROPOSED
parent_traits:
- METPO:1000059
synonyms:
- synonym_text: amylolytic enzymes
  synonym_type: RELATED_SYNONYM
  source: DOI:10.3389/fbioe.2020.00871
evidence:
- reference: DOI:10.3389/fbioe.2020.00871
  snippet: All enzymes capable of degrading starch are collectively indicated as amylolytic
    enzymes.
  notes: Sidar et al. frame amylolytic enzymes as starch-degrading enzymes, grounding
    the organism-level phenotype as active amylase production rather than starch catabolism
    itself.
- reference: DOI:10.1007/s00018-023-04812-w
  snippet: the Bacteroides ovatus (Bo) extracellular α-amylase, BoGH13ASus
  notes: Brown et al. characterized BoGH13A_Sus as a Bacteroides ovatus extracellular
    alpha-amylase in a starch utilization system, supporting B. ovatus as a source-backed
    amylase activity example.
canonical_examples:
- taxon_id: NCBITaxon:28116
  taxon_label: Bacteroides ovatus
  note: Brown et al. characterized the extracellular alpha-amylase BoGH13A_Sus from
    the Bacteroides ovatus starch utilization system.
  reference: DOI:10.1007/s00018-023-04812-w
discussions:
- discussion_id: amylase-activity-xref-gap
  prompt: Resolve an exact external ontology class for amylase activity before adding
    a TraitRecord xref.
  kind: CURATION_TODO
  status: OPEN
  rationale: GO:0016160 carries the same amylase activity label but denotes the enzyme
    molecular function rather than the organism-level amylolytic enzyme production
    phenotype, so it is appropriate as a causal-node grounding rather than an equivalent
    TraitRecord xref.
  posed_by: codex
  posed_date: '2026-09-12'
curation_history:
- timestamp: '2026-09-12T08:08:43Z'
  curator: codex
  action: MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID
  changes: Minted amylase activity as a DOI-backed TraitRecord after a repository-wide
    duplicate review covering ignored and hidden files; METPO has no exact amylase
    activity class yet.
  llm_assisted: true