Universal internucleotide statistics in full genomes: a footprint of the DNA structure and packaging?

PLoS One. 2014 Dec 1;9(12):e112534. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0112534. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Uncovering the fundamental laws that govern the complex DNA structural organization remains challenging and is largely based upon reconstructions from the primary nucleotide sequences. Here we investigate the distributions of the internucleotide intervals and their persistence properties in complete genomes of various organisms from Archaea and Bacteria to H. Sapiens aiming to reveal the manifestation of the universal DNA architecture. We find that in all considered organisms the internucleotide interval distributions exhibit the same [Formula: see text]-exponential form. While in prokaryotes a single [Formula: see text]-exponential function makes the best fit, in eukaryotes the PDF contains additionally a second [Formula: see text]-exponential, which in the human genome makes a perfect approximation over nearly 10 decades. We suggest that this functional form is a footprint of the heterogeneous DNA structure, where the first [Formula: see text]-exponential reflects the universal helical pitch that appears both in pro- and eukaryotic DNA, while the second [Formula: see text]-exponential is a specific marker of the large-scale eukaryotic DNA organization.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Base Sequence
  • DNA Packaging*
  • DNA, Archaeal / genetics*
  • DNA, Bacterial / genetics*
  • Databases, Genetic
  • Genome, Archaeal / genetics
  • Genome, Bacterial / genetics
  • Genomics*
  • Humans
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Nucleotides / genetics*

Substances

  • DNA, Archaeal
  • DNA, Bacterial
  • Nucleotides

Grants and funding

The financial support of this work was provided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Justus-Liebig-Universitaet Giessen, project No. BU 534/24-1, AB), by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University, assignment No. 2014/187, MB) and by the subsidy of the Russian Government to support the Program of competitive development of the leading academic centers (Kazan Federal University, AK). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.