What problem does it solve?
Determining whether a gene has an equivalent in another species—and whether that equivalent performs the same function—requires querying many disconnected databases (Ensembl Compara, NCBI, UniProt, Monarch, OpenTargets) and interpreting ortholog relationships, conservation metrics, and phenotype data. This Skill orchestrates that entire cross-species comparison workflow so researchers get a verified, database-grounded answer instead of guessing from memory.
Core Features & Use Cases
- Ortholog Discovery & Gene Trees: Find 1:1, 1:many, and many:many orthologs via Ensembl Compara and OpenTargets, then inspect gene trees for duplication and speciation events.
- Conservation & Selection Analysis: Retrieve coding sequences and compute dN/dS ratios (Nei-Gojobori method) to distinguish purifying selection, positive selection, and relaxed constraint.
- Functional & Phenotype Comparison: Compare GO annotations across species via UniProt and bridge human disease phenotypes to model organism phenotypes via Monarch.
- Use Case: A researcher studying a human disease gene asks whether mouse is a good model. The Skill finds the mouse ortholog, confirms a 1:1 relationship, compares GO terms, checks that mouse phenotypes in Monarch recapitulate the human disease, and reports whether the model is well-supported.
Quick Start
Find the mouse ortholog of human TP53, compare its functional annotations, and assess whether mouse phenotypes recapitulate the human disease.
