[Self-similarity in the structure of DNA: why are introns needed?].

Consequences of the hypothesis are analyzed that native spatial structure of DNA is the so-called crumpled globule, which is statistically free of knots. Since crumpled globule is self-similar fractal object in space, fixation of more or less unique chain fold, that is the case for eukaryotes, requires some self-similarity of the sequence. On this basis we explain quantitatively long-range power-law correlations in intron containing genes which have been discovered recently, predict some more detailed properties of correlations, which partly convinced already in experiment, and formulate a few more general hypotheses on the statistical properties of presently unassigned parts of DNA, on the role of intron as the instrument of fixation of DNA spatial structure and on the possible way of creation of such an apparatus in the evolution.