THE MODULAR STRUCTURE OF INFORMATIONAL SEQUENCES

It is shown that DNA sequences can be decomposed into smaller units mu ch the same as texts can be decomposed into syllables, words, or group s of words. Those smaller units (modules) are extracted from DNA seque nces according to statistical criteria. Tests with sequences of known modular structure (two novels and a FORTRAN source code) were performe d. The rate to which DNA sequences can be decomposed into modules (mod ularity) turns out to be a very sensitive measure to distinguish DNA s equences from random sequences.