Homology in EMBL Biomart

Question

[The Last Word]

Hi,

I am wondering what software determines homologous genes in Ensembl. Biomart,. Is it just a normal BLAST? I also have a second question. A paper which was published 7 years ago was able to find homologous genes for a set of 300 genes. However, I was able to find homologous genes for 215 genes from the same set? I do understand that biological information contained in the different databases keep changing, however, I was not expecting information to disappear for 80+ genes. Thank you for any information that is offered

Answer 1

[Ben Moore]

Hi The Last Word,

In Ensembl, homologues are inferred from the gene trees we produce as part of our comparative genomics analyses: http://www.ensembl.org/info/genome/compara/homology_method.html

We do not use known/curated lists of homologous genes in our predictions.

Best wishes

Ben Ensembl Helpdesk