The fractal structure of the mitochondrial genomes

Nestor N Oiwa and James A Glazier

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2002, vol. 311, issue 1, 221-230

Abstract: The mitochondrial DNA genome has a definite multifractal structure. We show that loops, hairpins and inverted palindromes are responsible for this self-similarity. We can thus establish a definite relation between the function of subsequences and their fractal dimension. Intriguingly, protein coding DNAs also exhibit palindromic structures, although they do not appear in the sequence of amino acids. These structures may reflect the stabilization and transcriptional control of DNA or the control of posttranscriptional editing of mRNA.

Keywords: GenBank; Mitochondrial DNA; DNA sequence analysis; Multifractal; Lévy flight (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:311:y:2002:i:1:p:221-230

DOI: 10.1016/S0378-4371(02)00807-5

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