Coupled intermittent maps modeling the statistics of genomic sequences: A network approach.

The dynamics of coupled intermittent maps is used to model the correlated structure of genomic sequences. The use of intermittent maps, as opposed to other simple chaotic maps, is particularly suited for the production of long-range correlation features which are observed in the genomic sequences of higher eucaryotes. A weighted network approach to symbolic sequences is introduced, and it is shown that coupled intermittent polynomial maps produce degree and link size distributions with power-law exponents similar to the ones observed in real genomes. The proposed network approach to symbolic sequences is generic and can be applied to any symbol sequence (artificial or natural).