The phrase "a modest preference" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to express a slight or moderate inclination towards something without being overly strong or assertive.
Example: "While I enjoy both coffee and tea, I have a modest preference for tea in the mornings."
Alternatives: "a slight preference" or "a mild preference".
Model system 3 revealed a modest preference for the synclinal transition state, albeit in very low yields.
E4 binds ERα with a modest preference over ERβ (Visser et al, 2008).
Although lincRNAs are not enriched in UR(B), these regions show a modest preference for long noncoding RNAs.
The regions have a modest preference for long noncoding RNAs but are depleted for small nucleolar RNAs, microRNAs, and transfer RNAs.
Our IP results suggest that FGF-2 activated both FGFR1 and FGFR3 with a modest preference towards FGFR1 over FGFR3 in knee articular chondrocytes.
Although this argument is not definitive, we interpret the better agreement of imports with the exposure profile associated with the nonclearance model as justifying a modest preference for this model in developing our current projections.
Furthermore, as pointed out by the reviewers, assays with consensus peptide substrates show an even more modest preference for proline.
Moreover, one of the "alternative" versions of AncCMGI shown in Figure 3 figure supplement 2 had even more modest preference for a +1 proline than the version characterized in the main figures.
However, data in Figure 3B actually show pretty modest preference for serine peptides and a bit better for threonine peptides, but neither is as strong a preference as extant proline-directed kinases are for proline.
The modest preference for AB over CE did not reach statistical significance (binomial test, p =.143).
The very modest preference for Pro in the Ser-peptides is particularly problematic given that most phosphorylations occur at Ser residues.
