GENETIC SIGNALS: AN EMERGING CONCEPT

摘要

Converting the DNA sequences into digital signals using a base four representation of the nucleotides leads to the conversion of the codons into numbers in the range 0-63 and of the amino acids, together with the terminator, into numbers in the range 0-20. Correspondingly, this transforms the symbolic DNA sequences into digital genetic signals of nucleotldes, codons or amo acids and offers the possibility to apply a whole range of powerful signal processing methods for their analysis. The paper proposes a new representation of the Genetic Code that reflects better its structure and degeneracy. Optimal symbolic-to-digital mappings for nucleotides and amo acids are proposed on this basis and some preliminary investigation of the resulting genetic signals is described. The use of Independent Component Analysis (ICA) for identifying control sequences in the DNA not coding directly proteins is proposed.