Fig. 2
Properties of negatively selected genes in cancer genomes. a Missense mutations in negatively selected genes cause less functional impact than missense mutations in non-selected or positively selected genes. The mean functional impact (CADD) score distribution for 10,000 random gene sets of non-selected genes is shown as a reference. The left red line indicates the mean functional impact score for a dN/dS threshold of 0.5 (negative selection) and the right red line the mean functional impact score for the positively selected genes. b Mean functional impact scores are shown for sets of negatively selected genes under different dN/dS thresholds and different methods to calculate negatively selected genes. Furthermore, on single gene level dN/dS ratios and mean functional impact scores are positively correlated (P < 10− 4; Pearson r = 0.61) when considering genes under significant selection. c Genes with several paralogs tend to have a higher dN/dS ratio compared to genes with one paralog, which in turn have higher dN/dS values than genes with no paralogs. Genes with one paralog show lower dN/dS values if the paralog has an anti-correlated expression (* P < 0.05; *** P < 0.001)