FAQ Frequently Asked Questions

What are fine-grained orthologs?

While eggNOG provides groups of orthologs where in-paralogs at different levels might exist, phylogenetic analysis allows restricting the list of orthologs for a given sequence to those that were not the result of a duplication event. Basically, fine-grained orthologs refer to phylogenetically refined orthology assignments.

Why can't I choose HMMer search mode in version 2.0?

In our latest tests, DIAMOND mode worked much faster and obtained similar or even better results than with the HMM approach. Note that eggnog-mapper needs to identify a seed_ortholog for each query sequence. The seed ortholog is expected to have a minimum level of similarity with the query, so eggNOG-mapper cannot really benefit from very distant homologies caught by HMM searches.

We are planning a new feature for eggNOG-mapper v2.1 where, optionally, queries without any DIAMOND hit can be assigned to eggNOG groups using HMM searches. In that case, functional inferences will be more general and less reliable.