Author(s): FARIA, L. C. B.; ROCHA, A. S. L.; KLEINSCHMIDT, J. H.; SILVA-FILHO, M. C.; BIM, E.; HERAI, R. H.; YAMAGISHI, M. E. B.; PALAZZO JÚNIOR, R.

Summary: Since a genome is a discrete sequence, the elements of which belong to a set of four letters, the question as to whether or not there is an error-correcting code underlying DNA sequences is unavoidable. The most common approach to answering this question is to propose a methodology to verify the existence of such a code. However, none of the methodologies proposed so far, although quite clever, has achieved that goal. In a recent work, we showed that DNA sequences can be identified as codewords in a class of cyclic error-correcting codes known as Hamming codes. In this paper, we show that a complete intron-exon gene, and even a plasmid genome, can be identified as a Hamming code codeword as well. Although this does not constitute a definitive proof that there is an error-correcting code underlying DNA sequences, it is the first evidence in this direction.

Publication year: 2012

Types of publication: Journal article

Unit: Embrapa Digital Agriculture

Keywords: Biologia, Biology, Genome, Nucleotide sequences, Sequência de DNA