The Grammatical Rule of DNA Language

Messages in Palindromic Verses
  • Susumu Ohno


All DNA base sequences, regardless of their origins or functions (coding versus non-coding) are messages written in palindromic verses. The canonical grammatical rule of DNA language is CG/TA deficiency, TG/CT/CA excess and all other grammatical rules are corollaries of this canonical. A large number of palindromic oligomers occur in all sequences. Furthermore, given a long enough sequence two complementary base oligomers are always found in nearly equal numbers. Translated into English, DNA sequences might read something like the following palindrome: “Doom Sad named was dog DNA, devil’s deeds lived, and God saw demand as mood.” The above might be entitled “Dog as a messenger of Satan,” for aside from “deed” which is a palindrome, “God” is complementary to “dog,” “and” to “DNA” and “devil” to “lived.”


Human Serum Albumin Noncoding Region Complementary Pair Grammatical Rule Immunoglobulin Heavy Chain Gene 


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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Tokyo 1991

Authors and Affiliations

  • Susumu Ohno
    • 1
  1. 1.Beckamn Research Institute of the City of HopeUSA

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