GENETIC SEQUENCES AS PRODUCT OF COMPRESSION BY INCLUSIVE SUPERPOSITION OF MANY CODES

Apart from the classical RNA-protein translation code, the genomic DNA sequences carry many other, nontriplet codes of different nature. Tho se of them which are at least partly deciphered are discussed in this review in the order of their estimated occupancy in the eukaryotic gen ome. Each of the codes is degenerate, like the triplet code. This is t he basis for their coexistence in one and the same sequence, so that t he same base often (if not always) belongs to several different overla pping sequence patterns. The genomic DNA sequence is, therefore, an un usual example of natural sequence compression where, apparently, each single symbol not only is not wasted, but is also used simultaneously in many superimposed messages.