Data hiding methods based upon DNA sequences

In this paper, three data hiding methods are proposed, based upon properties of DNA sequences. It is highlighted that DNA sequences possess some interesting properties which can be utilized to hide data. These three methods are: the Insertion Method, the Complementary Pair Method and the Substitution Method. For each method, a reference DNA sequence S is selected and the secret messageM is incorporated into it so that S is obtained. S is then sent to the receiver and the receiver is able to identify and extract the message M hidden in S. Furthermore, the robustness and the tightly embedded capacity analysis of the three proposed methods are demonstrated. Finally, experimental results indicate a better performance of the proposed methods compared to the performance of the competing methods with respect to several parameters such as capacity, payload and bpn. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.