Fractal properties of the human genome.
The fractal dimension of the human chromosomes and four other genomes were determined using the box counting method. Human chromosomes exhibited a fractal dimension (D) of about 0.8, while values for a bacteria, yeast, worm and plant were higher. Analysis of three human chromosomes over five orders of magnitude of scale (from 10(8) to 10(4) bp), showed D to be non-constant at the smaller scales, when introns were included as gaps. The relationship between D and gene density fit an empirical equation related to that expected from theory, and allowed for the calculation of the fractal initiator or self-similarity ratio. This value (0.57) was constant at all scales for human chromosomes, and was similar for other species, except for Arabidopsis.
School of Public Health, UMDNJ, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, USA. sjgarte@yahoo.com
Seymour
S
Garte
D000818:Animals; D017709:Fractals; D018628:Gene Dosage; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D016681:Genome, Fungal; D015894:Genome, Human; D018745:Genome, Plant; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic