Latent sequence periodicity of some oncogenes and DNA-binding protein genes.

A method of latent periodicity search is developed. We use mutual information to reveal the latent periodicity of mRNA sequences. The latent periodicity of an mRNA sequence is a periodicity with a low level of similarity between any two periods inside the mRNA sequence. The mutual information between an artificial numerical sequence and an mRNA sequence is calculated. The length of the artificial sequence period is varied from 2 to 150. The high level of the mutual information between artificial and mRNA sequences allows us to find any type of latent periodicity of mRNA sequence. The latent periodicity of many mRNA coding regions has been found. For example, the retinoblastoma gene of HSRBS clone contains a region with a latent period equal to 45 bases. The A-RAF oncogene of HSARAFIR clone contains a region with a latent period equal to 84 bases. Integrated sequences for the regions with latent periodicity are determined. The potential significance of latent periodicity is discussed.