p-Adic Modelling of the Genome and the Genetic Code

TL;DR

This paper introduces a p-adic mathematical framework for modeling genomic and genetic code systems, revealing that genetic code degeneration is a p-adic phenomenon and proposing an evolutionary hypothesis.

Contribution

It develops a novel p-adic formalism for genomics, linking genetic structures to prime-based information spaces and illustrating their relevance with examples.

Findings

Genetic code degeneration is explained as a p-adic phenomenon.

A hypothesis on the evolution of the genetic code from primitive nucleotides and amino acids.

The formalism can be implemented in computer programs for genomic analysis.

Abstract

The present paper is devoted to foundations of p-adic modelling in genomics. Considering nucleotides, codons, DNA and RNA sequences, amino acids, and proteins as information systems, we have formulated the corresponding p-adic formalisms for their investigations. Each of these systems has its characteristic prime number used for construction of the related information space. Relevance of this approach is illustrated by some examples. In particular, it is shown that degeneration of the genetic code is a p-adic phenomenon. We have also put forward a hypothesis on evolution of the genetic code assuming that primitive code was based on single nucleotides and chronologically first four amino acids. This formalism of p-adic genomic information systems can be implemented in computer programs and applied to various concrete cases.