On Thu, 19 Mar 2015, Andreas Tille wrote:
Usually predependencies are created by those people who are interested
in the final package. If the final package is maintained by Debian
Science I'd call it perfectly consequently that Debian Science also
maintains its predepends. We have several examples for this and so
the short answer to your question is "yes".
+1
moreover, at times it would even be desired and recommended. This way
it would be easier to guarantee that version/progression of those core
packages would be tailored to the target leaf science software, not some
e.g. Desktop app like it would be in the case if the predepency is
maintained by the Desktop-all team ;)