REPRESENTATION OF AMINO-ACID-SEQUENCES AS 2-DIMENSIONAL POINT PATTERNS

An algorithm for the representation of amino acid sequences as two-dim ensional point patterns (2-D plot) is described. The algorithm is base d on chaos game representation (CGR) for DNA sequences and was extende d for amino acid sequences. The 2-D plot depicts the sequentiality of amino acids and the amino acid composition of a protein. Changes in a protein sequence as insertion, deletion and repeats of amino acids are characterized by specific geometrical properties and changes in the 2 -D plots. The 2-D plot may be considered as a two-dimensional ''finger print'' of a protein. The properties of the algorithm are explained by user-defined amino acid sequences. As an example the 2-D plots of two selected heart proteins are generated. The sequences of these protein s are obtained from the protein sequence database SWISS-PROT.