  Ontological representations of qualities, dispositions, and roles have been
refined over the past decade, clarifying subtle distinctions in life science
research. After articulating a widely-used characterization of these entities
within the context of Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), we identify gaps in this
treatment and motivate the need for supplementing the BFO characterization. By
way of supplement, we propose definitions for grounding relations holding
between qualities and dispositions, and dispositions and roles, illustrating
our proposal by representing subtle aspects of host-pathogen interactions.
