I recently read some papers describing protein staining results and came across the phrase "punctuate pattern". I also see someone uses the phrase "punctate pattern", for example, doi: 10.1111/j.1469-0691.2010.03186.x. I am wondering what do the two words really mean in this context.
HI, "punctuate" is a mistake, because the word is only used as a verb to describe the use of punctuation (comma, ful stop, exclamation mark).
Punctate (adjective) should be the correct word to describe a dot-like pattern.
Actually initially I thought it was a mistake, too. However, I searched this "punctuate pattern" phrase in Google and found many results from published papers and books. In one special case (Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 2011, vol 17, No 3, pp 386–394, 10.1111/j.1469-0691.2010.03186.x), as I mentioned in the original question, some even used these two within one paper "a punctate or dot signal within
the cell nucleus was considered as punctuate pattern". I become confused then about the real meaning and it seems not to be a simple typo.
The expression should be "a PUNCTUM- or dot-LIKE signal within
the cell nucleus was considered TO GIVE RISE TO A PUNCTATE pattern"
It's typos or unskilled writing (there were multiple errors in the sentence besides the word spelling). It's not surprising to see poor writing, as not everyone doing experiments is good at writing. If the editor is not being careful, mistakes will slip through the production and go online.
This surprised me a lot! Thank you very much for your comments.
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