title: An extended IUPAC nomenclature code for polymorphic nucleic acids.
abstract: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) code specified nearly 25 years ago provides a nomenclature for incompletely specified nucleic acids. However, no system currently exists that allows for the informatics representation of the relative abundance at polymorphic nucleic acids (e.g. single nucleotide polymorphisms) in a single specified character, or a string of characters. Here, I propose such an information code as a natural extension to the IUPAC nomenclature code, and present some potential uses and limitations to such a code. The primary anticipated use of this extended nomenclature code is to assist in the representation of the rapidly growing space of information in human genetic variation.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  johnsonad2@nhlbi.nih.gov
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
authors.forename: Andrew D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D003198:Computer Simulation; D009696:Nucleic Acids / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification*; D009626:Terminology as Topic
chemical_list: D009696:Nucleic Acids