title: Manuscript evolution.
abstract: Frequently, letters, words and sentences are used in undergraduate textbooks and the popular press as an analogy for the coding, transfer and corruption of information in DNA. We discuss here how the converse can be exploited, by using programs designed for biological analysis of sequence evolution to uncover the relationships between different manuscript versions of a text. We point out similarities between the evolution of DNA and the evolution of texts.
authors.affiliation: Dept of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, UK CB2 1QW. c.j.howe@bioc.cam.ac.uk
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Howe
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Barbrook
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Spencer
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bordalejo
authors.forename: L R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Mooney
mesh_terms: D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D049668:History, 15th Century; D008373:Manuscripts as Topic / Q000266:history*; D010802:Phylogeny; D017354:Point Mutation