Before revision:  This method , called Critical Variable Selection (CVS), affords predictions that are significantly different from those of methods based on pairwise correlations, and it recovers biologically relevant sites , including highly conserved ones. As compared to other methods based on pairwise correlations, we find, in the analysed cases, that CVS is more efficient in identifying the core of relevant sites , as well as most of the tightest contacts in the protein tertiary structure .
After revision:  This method , called Critical Variable Selection (CVS), affords predictions that are significantly different from those of methods based on pairwise correlations, and it recovers biologically relevant sites and evo- lutionary dynamics. This suggests that Critical Variable Selection is able to identify in a Multiple Sequence Alignment a core of sites encoding functional and structural information .