title: Universal 1/f noise, crossovers of scaling exponents, and chromosome-specific patterns of guanine-cytosine content in DNA sequences of the human genome.
abstract: Spatial fluctuations of guanine and cytosine base content (GC%) are studied by spectral analysis for the complete set of human genomic DNA sequences. We find that (i) 1/ f(alpha) decay is universally observed in the power spectra of all 24 chromosomes, and (ii) the exponent alpha approximately 1 extends to about 10(7) bases, one order of magnitude longer than has previously been observed. We further find that (iii) almost all human chromosomes exhibit a crossover from alpha(1) approximately 1 (1/ f (alpha(1))) at lower frequency to alpha(2) <1 (1/ f (alpha(2))) at higher frequency, typically occurring at around 30,000-100,000 bases, while (iv) the crossover in this frequency range is virtually absent in human chromosome 22. In addition to the universal 1/ f(alpha) noise in power spectra, we find (v) several lines of evidence for chromosome-specific correlation structures, including a 500,000 base long oscillation in human chromosome 21. The universal 1/ f(alpha) spectrum in the human genome is further substantiated by a resistance to reduction in variance of guanine and cytosine content when the window size is increased.
authors.affiliation: The Robert S. Boas Center for Genomics and Human Genetics, North Shore LIJ Institute for Medical Research, 350 Community Drive, Manhasset, New York 10030, USA. wli@nslij-genetics.org
authors.forename: Wentian
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Holste
mesh_terms: D001482:Base Composition / Q000235:genetics*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D002877:Chromosomes, Human / Q000235:genetics*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003434:Crossing Over, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics*; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008957:Models, Genetic; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods*; D013269:Stochastic Processes
chemical_list: D004247:DNA