Dispersion

Dispersion is a measure of the variation between replicates is an MSA ensemble .

On benchmark tests, dispersion correlates strongly with error (fraction of incorrect columns).

The distance between two replicates is calculated as the fraction of columns which differ, and the dispersion ( D ) of an ensemble is the mean distance. When sequences have few differences, their MSA is robust against parameter variations and replicates are identical ( D = 0). In more challenging cases, replicates vary ( D > 0) due to alignment errors.