Since the functions of only some ADAMTS proteins have been empirically tested, estimates of evolutionary relatedness amongst the entire family may imply closer functional relatedness, and thus guide the future design of more specific empirical tests of protein functions.
This analysis also revealed that for the carotenoid and chlorophyll biosynthesis-related pathway enzymes that are encoded by multiple genes, only specific family members displayed high co-expression levels; this may imply their functional importance in their respective biosynthesis pathways.
As there is a considerable similarity in protein coding sequences in multiple members in bHLH TF family, it may imply significant functional redundancy of these regulators in biological systems.
However, sequence similarity does not necessary imply functional equivalence and thus Blast based annotation transfers can be erroneous e.g. proteins from gene duplication may have high sequence similarity but different functions.
A natural explanation is that the former imply functional redundancy.
On the other hand, the higher density of cancer type-specific networks may imply a closer functional relationship among mutated genes in core modules from the same cancer type compared to those in different cancer types.
