Standard deviations and correlations of GC levels in DNA sequences

Gene. 2001 Oct 3;276(1-2):33-8. doi: 10.1016/s0378-1119(01)00666-7.

Abstract

In a DNA sequence that exhibits long-range correlations, standard deviations among the GC levels of its segments can be up to an order of magnitude higher than in a sequence consisting of independent, identically distributed nucleotides. Conversely, plots of inter-segment standard deviations vs. segment length reveal quantitative information about the correlations present in a sequence. We present and discuss formulae that relate long-range (power-law) correlations between the nucleotides of a sequence to the expected standard deviations of the GC levels of its segments, and to the correlations between them.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Base Composition*
  • DNA / genetics*
  • GC Rich Sequence / genetics*
  • Genome
  • Humans
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA / methods
  • Statistics as Topic

Substances

  • DNA