Use the plot on the Loadings Plot page to determine how each protein, peptide group, or peptide isoform contributes to a principal component and to select individual points on the plot, especially those that have a comparable profile, to understand what is changing similarly across all the samples.
Each blue circle, or data point, represents an individual protein, peptide group, or peptide isoform measured across all samples. Data points that lie physically near each other are similar.
Both the x axis and y axis display principal components.
Data points that are on the opposite sides of the origin have an inverse correlation to each other. Data points that are higher on an axis or that are the farthest away from the origin (0) represent proteins that contribute more to the principal component that helps the most to distinguish one sample from another.
Hover over the data point to view a tool tip for more information on the selected feature.
The following figure gives an example of a PCA plot on the Loadings Plot page. The more tightly clustered areas show similar proteins. The right and the left areas show proteins that explain the difference between biological replicates. The top and the bottom areas show the change between different time points.