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Table 1. Examples of GO terms and their specificity metrics.

From: Quantifying Protein Function Specificity in the Gene Ontology

 

GO Offspring

OffspN

GO Anc

GO Prop

IC

Max Specificity Value

0

9.02

31

1

15.18

Min Specificity Value

8267

0

0

0

0

GO:0005524

0

9.02

8

1

6.64

GO:0003700

1

8.33

5

0.83

5.85

GO:0042302

5

7.23

2

0.29

15.18

  1. Note that GO Offspring is the untransformed number of offspring for a term and OffspN is the normalized metric. These GO terms provide some examples of how various metrics may provide different “views” regarding the specificity of a term. For instance GO:0005524 is the most specific by OffspN (9.02) yet is only moderate by IC (6.64), meaning that although it is most specific by the hierarchical structure of the GO, it is a relatively common term in the database. Conversely, GO:0042302 is the most specific by IC (15.18) yet is only moderately specific by OffspN which means that although more specific functions are possible according to the GO hierarchy, this term is very rare in the database. The GO:0003700 term shows relatively moderate specificity for all metrics.