An additional refinement to the gene-finding efforts has been the study of networks of proteins or the genes that encode them. The reasoning is that even if different studies (or studies in different species) do not identify the same specific gene as being involved in a trait, they might identify a network of genes that underlies the genetic “signal” across studies and datasets and which encodes proteins that have similar functions or are involved in similar pathways (e.g., McBride et al. 2009).
