An information-theoretical analysis of gene nucleotide sequence structuredness for a selection of aging and cancer-related genes

Genomics Inform. 2020 Dec;18(4):e41. doi: 10.5808/GI.2020.18.4.e41. Epub 2020 Dec 8.

Abstract

We provide an algorithm for the construction and analysis of autocorrelation (information) functions of gene nucleotide sequences. As a measure of correlation between discrete random variables, we use normalized mutual information. The information functions are indicative of the degree of structuredness of gene sequences. We construct the information functions for selected gene sequences. We find a significant difference between information functions of genes of different types. We hypothesize that the features of information functions of gene nucleotide sequences are related to phenotypes of these genes.

Keywords: : gene sequence; gene structuredness; information function; information theory; normalized mutual information.