ASSESSMENT OF THE FUNCTIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF A NUCLEOTIDE SEQUENCE BY SUBJECTING THE READING FRAME DATA TO DATA PROCESSING

摘要

The present invention relates generally to a method for the genetic analysis of nucleic acid molecules and expression products encoded therefrom. The present invention relates to the analysis of the genetic code, and to the analysis of individual codons that comprise a nucleotide sequence. The present invention relates to the third base position of a codon for a particular amino acid, and to the functional significance of that particular amino acid. More particularly, the present invention provides a means for predicting the functional significance of a nucleotide sequence or a segment of a larger nucleotide sequence and to a means for predicting the functional significance of an expression product of said nucleotide sequence. The present invention further relates to the designation of a particular trinucleotide codon for the specification of an amino acid, and to the preferential use and evolutionary conservation of the nucleotide bases guanine and cytosine in the third position of a trinucleotide codon. The present invention further combines software programming with genetic to provide a method for the analysis of a nucleotide sequence to determine the functional significance of the amino acids encoded by a nucleotide sequence. The functional significance of a nucleotide sequence includes the relative potential for that sequence to be associated with a critical cellular function such as the likelihood that a particular sequence encodes an expression product associated with genetic replication and/or cell survival growth, development and/or maintenance.