Gene Assembly in Ciliates Part I. Molecular Operations

Gene Assembly in Ciliates: Molecular operations

Strategies of Loop Recombination in Ciliates

Gene assembly in ciliates is an extremely involved DNA transformation process, which transforms a nucleus, the micronucleus, to another functionally different nucleus, the macronucleus. In this paper we characterize which loop recombination operations (one of the three types of molecular operations that accomplish gene assembly) can possibly be applied in the transformation of a given gene from...

Circularity and Other Invariants of Gene Assembly in Ciliates

Ciliates (an ancient group of single cell organisms) have two sorts of nuclei with different functionalities: the micronucleus and the macronucleus. After the cell mating the micronuclear genes are converted into the macronuclear genes in the process called gene assembly. This is one of the most complex examples of DNA processing known in any organisms, and it is fascinating from the computatio...

Universal and simple operations for gene assembly in ciliates

The way that ciliates transform genes from their micronuclear to the macronuclear form is very interesting (and unique), also from a computational point of view. In this paper, we describe the model of gene assembly in ciliates presented in [2], [3], and [4]. Moreover, we prove that the set of three operations underlying this model is universal, in the sense that it suffices for gene assembly f...

Reducibility of gene patterns in ciliates using the breakpoint graph

Gene assembly in ciliates is one of the most involved DNA processings going on in any organism. This process transforms one nucleus (the micronucleus) into another functionally different nucleus (the macronucleus). We continue the development of the theoretical models of gene assembly, and in particular we demonstrate the use of the concept of the breakpoint graph, known from another branch of ...