Oligonucleotide correlations between infector and host genomes hint at evolutionary relationships

Abstract

The frequencies of oligonucleotides of length 3-6 were studied in 211 sequences of human DNA (659 kilobases), 22 sequences of DNA of human viruses (120 kbs), in 181 sequences of E. coli (442 kbs), and in 42 sequences of phages of E. coli (137 kbs). The sequences were obtained from Genbank(R) 48. The observed frequencies (O) were compared to the expected frequencies (E) obtained in two ways: 1) according to nucleotide composition for each series, and 2) according to first order Markow chains for triplets, second order for quadruplets, and third order for quintuplets and sextuplets. The ratio O/E was obtained for each oligonucleotide. Then, the correlation between the ratio O/E in a pair of series was calculated. Strong correlations were observed for sequences of man and human viruses, and for E. coli and its phages. Other correlations were small. For higher order Markov chains, there is indication of some correlation also between viruses and phages. It was concluded that through analysis of parallel oligonucleotide series it may be possible to infer some of the complex evolutionary relationships existing between cells and their infectors beyond the level of codon usage.