Coding properties of DNA languages

  • Authors:

  • Salah Hussini;Lila Kari;Stavros Konstantinidis

  • Affiliations:

  • Dept. of Mathematics and Computing Science, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 3C3;Dept.of Computer Science, University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B7;Dept. of Mathematics and Computing Science, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 3C3

  • Venue:
  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • Year:
  • 2003

Quantified Score

Hi-index 5.23

Visualization

Abstract

The computation language of a DNA-based system consists of all the words (DNA strands) that can appear in any computation step of the system. In this work we define properties of languages which ensure that the words of such languages will not form undesirable bonds when used in DNA computations. We give several characterizations of the desired properties and provide methods for obtaining languages with such properties. The decidability of these properties is addressed as well. As an application we consider splicing systems whose computation language is free of certain undesirable bonds and is generated by nearly optimal comma-free codes.