A p-adic model of DNA sequence and genetic code

Abstract

Using basic properties of p-adic numbers, we consider a simple new approach to describe main aspects of DNA sequence and the genetic code. In our investigation central role plays an ultrametric p-adic information space whose basic elements are nucleotides, codons and genes. We show that a 5-adicmodel is appropriate for DNA sequence. This 5-adicmodel, combined with 2-adic distance, is also suitable for the genetic code and for amore advanced employment in genomics. We find that genetic code degeneracy is related to the p-adic distance between codons.