A readable and space-efficient DNA sequence representation: application to caulimoviral DNAs.

A new representation of nucleotide sequence information has been devised to allow the clear presentation of large amounts of sequence information in a limited amount of space. Nucleotide sequences of DNA are represented by squares in three vertically aligned positions for each nucleotide. The squares represent, from top to bottom: a purine, a guanine or cytosine and a pyrimidine. The representation provides a simultaneous representation of both strands of double-stranded DNA and can be easily scanned visually for a variety of sequence features. Biologically important features of the DNA sequence near the origin of SV40 replication are easily recognized. The representation was also used to identify possibly base-paired stems in caulimoviral transcripts that may be of significance for viral replication.