added control of group_by content returned
added control of group_by content returned

Improved performance of a few operations.

Ensembl/ensembl-compara,Ensembl/ensembl-compara,Ensembl/ensembl-compara,Ensembl/ensembl-compara,Ensembl/ensembl-compara,Ensembl/ensembl-compara,Ensembl/ensembl-compara,Ensembl/ensembl-compara