title: Statistical properties of nucleotide clusters in DNA sequences.
abstract: Using the complete genome of Plasmodium falciparum 3D7 which has 14 chromosomes as an example, we have examined the distribution functions for the amount of C or G and A or T consecutively and non-overlapping blocks of m bases in this system. The function P(S) about the number of the consecutive C-G or A-T content cluster conforms to the relation P(S) proportional, variante(-alphas); values of the scaling exponent alpha(CG) are much larger than alpha(AT); and alpha(AT) of 14 chromosomes are hardly changed, whereas alpha(CG) of 14 chromosomes have a number of fluctuations. We found maximum value of A-T cluster size is much larger than C-G, which implies the existence of large A-T cluster. Our study of the width function xi(m) of cluster C-G content showed that follows good power law xi(m) proportional, variantm(-gamma). The average gamma for 14 chromosomes is 0.931. These investigations provide some insight into the nucleotide clusters of DNA sequences, and help us understand other properties of DNA sequences.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Jinhua University, Jinhua 321017, China. Jh_Chengjun@163.com
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Lin-Xi
authors.initials: LX
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001482:Base Composition; D001483:Base Sequence; D002875:Chromosomes / Q000235:genetics; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics*; D018503:Genome, Protozoan; D023281:Genomics; D009711:Nucleotides / Q000235:genetics*; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D016054:DNA, Protozoan; D009711:Nucleotides