Equivalence of two Fourier methods for biological sequences
Eivind Coward
Department of Mathematical Sciences, Norwegian University of Science
and Technology, N-7034 Trondheim, Norway
e-mail: eivindc@math.ntnu.no
Journal of Mathematical Biology,
36(1): 64-70 (1997)
Abstract
Two methods for defining Fourier power spectra for DNA sequences or other
biological sequences are compared. The first method uses indicator sequences for each
letter. The second method by Silverman and Linsker assigns to each letter a vertex of a
regular tetrahedron in space, and this can be generalized to any dimension. While giving
different Fourier transforms, it is shown that the power spectra of the two methods are
essentially the same. This is also true if one replaces the Fourier transform in both methods
with another linear transform, such as the Walsh transform.
