IUBio

Homology/similarity/identity: proper usage.

William R. Pearson wrp at biochsn.acc.Virginia.EDU
Thu Jan 31 08:13:55 EST 1991


	I would feel very uncomfortable calling some cloned inserts
from an insect "homologous" to mammalian genes.  I would say that they
were "X - Y% identical", or that they were "very similar."  The point
you want to make, of course, is that you now know the sequence of the
insect homologues of some mammalian genes, but it is the insect "genes"
that are homologous. I would put the cloned inserts into a different
category.

Bill Pearson



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