Functional conservation vs. ortholog prediction: comparing experimental results with the OrthoMCL ortholog predictions for disease-related families.

In all but one of these experiments, the yeast gene was mutated and the gene from the other organism was tested for the ability to complement the mutant phenotype. In the one exception, the yeast gene DPM1 was expressed in mouse. In the OrthoMCL column, “Yes” indicates that the OrthoMCL algorithm placed the two proteins in the same ortholog family, while “No” indicates it did not. In the Experimental column, “Yes” indicates functional complementation, while “No” indicates none. Thus, when both columns are the same, the OrthoMCL prediction is consistent with the experimental result i.e. in the cases where both are “Yes,” the predicted orthologs are functionally conserved, and when both are “No,” the proteins are not predicted to be orthologs, and they are not functionally conserved.

除1项例外实验外，其余所有实验均先对酵母基因进行诱变处理，随后检测外源生物的对应基因能否互补该突变表型（mutant phenotype）。仅有的1项例外实验中，我们在小鼠体内表达了酵母DPM1基因。
在OrthoMCL列中，“是”代表OrthoMCL算法将两种蛋白质归入了同一直系同源家族（ortholog family），“否”则代表未完成该归类。
在实验列中，“是”代表存在功能互补（functional complementation），“否”则代表未发生功能互补。
综上，当两列结果一致时，OrthoMCL的预测与实验结果相契合：具体来说，若两列均为“是”，则预测的直系同源物（orthologs）功能保守；若两列均为“否”，则这些蛋白质未被预测为直系同源物，且功能不保守。