Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!decwrl!mcnc!uvaarpa!murdoch!biochsn.acc.Virginia.EDU!wrp From: wrp@biochsn.acc.Virginia.EDU (William R. Pearson) Newsgroups: bionet.molbio.evolution Subject: Re: Homology/similarity/identity: proper usage. Summary: use similarity and identity Message-ID: <1991Jan31.131355.19881@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> Date: 31 Jan 91 13:13:55 GMT References: <3824@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> Sender: news@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU Organization: University of Virginia Lines: 10 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