identifier: METPO:1000526
label: chemical entity
definition: A material entity that is a physical entity of interest in chemistry,
  including molecular entities, parts thereof, and chemical substances. Used as
  the range class for the majority of METPO chemical-use OBJECT_PROPERTYs
  (uses_as_carbon_source, uses_as_electron_donor, ferments, oxidizes, etc.)
  so that organism-to-chemical assertions resolve to a curated chemical class.
definition_source: DOI:10.1093/nar/gkv1031
trait_category: UPPER
term_kind: CLASS
mapping_status: REVIEWED
parent_traits:
- METPO:1000186
xrefs:
- CHEBI:24431
evidence:
- reference: DOI:10.1093/nar/gkv1031
  snippet: ChEBI is a freely available dictionary of molecular entities
  notes: ChEBI's 'chemical entity' (CHEBI:24431) is the canonical upper-root
    for the chemical objects participating in METPO chemical-use predicates
    and is the recommended grounding for METPO:1000526.
- reference: DOI:10.3233/AO-220262
  snippet: BFO is a genuine top-level ontology
  notes: Supports METPO:1000186 (material entity) as the BFO-aligned parent of
    chemical entity.
curation_history:
- timestamp: '2026-05-16T09:30:00-07:00'
  curator: claude
  action: CREATED_UPPER_CLASS_RECORD
  changes: Created upper-ontology CLASS record for METPO:1000526 (chemical
    entity) so that the range of un-deprecated metabolism OBJECT_PROPERTYs
    resolves to a curated TraitMech record. Added xref to CHEBI:24431, which
    is the exact ChEBI equivalent (same definition, same root position).
    TraitMech records can use either METPO:1000526 or CHEBI:24431 as range_;
    this xref makes them interconvertible.
  llm_assisted: true