Puppy Representation of DNA Nucleotide Sequences

Described here is a pattern showing a useful representation of the sequence of nucleotides in the DNA of a plant virus. The DNA is the genetic material of the virus and encodes all functions necessary for the virus to reproduce itself in host plants. A DNA strand is a linear polymer of four nucleotides: adenosine, guanosine, thymidine, and cytidine monophosphates. The information content of DNA lies in the order of the nucleotides. To depict the order, the upper case Roman character for the first letter of the English name of a nucleotide usually represents that nucleotide. Such representations are difficult to scan for interesting features, inefficient in the amount of space they occupy and in some type fonts lead to mistaken reading of “G” and “C”. In this pattern [1], the top line of the sequence row has circles for nucleotides containing purine bases (“A” and “G”), while circles on the bottom line of the sequence row indicate pyrimidine nucleotides (“T” and “C”). The middle line of the row contains an additional circle for “G” and “C” residues. Most DNA molecules, including that of this virus, contain two anti-parallel DNA strands. The sequence of one strand is complementary to that of the other, according to the rules that “A” pairs with “T” and “C” with “G”. The Puppy representation shows the sequence of both strands; reading the diagram upside down gives the complementary strand…