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The DNA-protein coding problem

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Abstract

The DNA-protein coding problem is given a general algebraic formulation, the consequences of which are then explored by standard mathematical methods. To keep the treatment self-contained, the mathematical techniques to be used are explained in detail. It is demonstrated that there exista priori a countably infinite number of different abstract DNA-protein codes, thereby showing that inductive attempts to construct such a code will most likely be fruitless. A notion of ergodicity is then introduced, which imposes a number of restrictions on the admissible codes, and, in fact, these considerations enable us toderive a small portion of a code which, if our hypothesis of ergodicity is correct, must occur in nature. Finally, we discuss briefly the problem as to whether there can exist more than one DNA-protein code in nature.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Committee on Mathematical Biology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, USA

    Robert Rosen

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  1. Robert Rosen
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Rosen, R. The DNA-protein coding problem. Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 21, 71–95 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02476459

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02476459

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