A Quantitative Test of Long-Range Correlations and Compositional
Fluctuations in DNA Sequences
C.A. Chatzidimitriou-Dreismann, R.M. Streffer, D. Larhammar
European Journal of Biochemistry , 224(2), 365--371 (1994).
Abstract
Recent findings concerning long-range correlations and fractals in intron-containing DNA
sequences of living organisms are tested qualitatively and quantitatively. Extending previous studies, we
demonstrate that these findings are trivially equivalent to variations of the base-pair composition in different
regions of a DNA sequence. It is shown explicitly that a well-defined scaling or fractal exponent does not exist
anywhere. Comparisons of natural DNAs with computer-generated, artificial sequences are made. The present
study reveals that certain natural DNA sequences (especially those with compact genomes) do have stochastic
characteristics which are intrinsically different from artificial sequences. The results for 21 DNA sequences of
various types from widely different taxa are reported.
