Scale-Invariant Spatial Patterns in Genome Organization
Michael D. Purugganan
Physics Letters A, 175(3-4), 252--256 (1993)
Abstract
Eukaryotic genomes are characterized by coding regions interspersed
within non-coding sequences, creating irregular dispersal patterns.
Fractal analysis was applied to the study of this dispersed
organization of eukaryotic genomes. The results show that
eukaryotic genomes possess two length regimes -- a short ordered
length scale, and a fractal regime with fractal dimensions
ranging from 0.21 +/- 0.02 to 0.84 +/- 0.02. Fractal scaling
provides clues to the origin and evolution of sequence
patterns within genomes, and provides us with tools necessary
to characterize such patterns in detail.
