Nearest neighbor nucleotide patterns. Structural and biological implications

Abstract

Recently, nearest neighbor patterns were observed in prokaryotic and eukaryotic DNA sequences. These are discussed with respect to some of their biological implications. It is suggested that their origins relate to different specific structures of nearest neighbor base pairs. These patterns strongly constrain the DNA sequence. As such, they "explain" to some degree the amino acid codon choice and have direct bearing on questions related to evolution.