Semester
Spring
Date of Graduation
1999
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
PhD
College
Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources
Department
Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Committee Chair
Alfred H. Stiller.
Abstract
This study uses dynamical analysis to examine in a quantitative fashion the information coding mechanism in DNA sequences. This exceeds the simple dichotomy of either modeling the mechanism by comparing DNA sequence walks as Fractal Brownian Motion (fbm) processes. The 2-D mappings of the DNA sequences for this research are from Iterated Function System (IFS) (Also known as the "Chaos Game Representation" (CGR)) mappings of the DNA sequences. This technique converts a 1-D sequence into a 2-D representation that preserves subsequence structure and provides a visual representation. The second step of this analysis involves the application of Wavelet Packet Transforms, a recently developed technique from the field of signal processing. A multi-fractal model is built by using wavelet transforms to estimate the Hurst exponent, H. The Hurst exponent is a non-parametric measurement of the dynamism of a system. This procedure is used to evaluate gene-coding events in the DNA sequence of cystic fibrosis mutations. The H exponent is calculated for various mutation sites in this gene. The results of this study indicate the presence of anti-persistent, random walks and persistent "sub-periods" in the sequence. This indicates the hypothesis of a multi-fractal model of DNA information encoding warrants further consideration.;This work examines the model's behavior in both pathological (mutations) and non-pathological (healthy) base pair sequences of the cystic fibrosis gene. These mutations both natural and synthetic were introduced by computer manipulation of the original base pair text files. The results show that disease severity and system "information dynamics" correlate. These results have implications for genetic engineering as well as in mathematical biology. They suggest that there is scope for more multi-fractal models to be developed.
Recommended Citation
Walker, David Lee, "Use of wavelet-packet transforms to develop an engineering model for multifractal characterization of mutation dynamics in pathological and nonpathological gene sequences" (1999). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 3139.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/3139