Nowadays, many biologists are involved in frenzied endeavors to determine sequences
of thousands of genes of various organisms hoping to unravel mysteries and to
lighten miseries of life. The sequences of DNA and protein are traditionally
represented by four and twenty alphabetical characters, so we have boring heaps
of characters, once we look into huge databases or pages of new journals. As
an attempt to make these sequences a little bit more friendlier and attractive,
we have proposed solmization of DNA sequences by assigning a tone to each base.
This was extended to the assignment of a tonal pitch to each amino acid. Once
sequences are transcribed to MIDI notes, they can be manipulated as materials
for compositions, and my exercises and explorations are shown in articles, programs,
and MIDI files.
Original assignments (see Table below):
(1) DNA sequence: base (GCTA) = tone (DEGA).
(2) Amino acid sequence: (RKH) (DE) (NQST) (GPAC) (YWF) (MLVI)= (#D1,F1,G1)(#A1,C2)(D2,F2,G2,A2)(C3,D3,E3,G3)(A3,B3,D4)(E4,#F4,A4,B4).
Extended assignments:
(1) DNA sequence: any transposition or modulation of the original.
(2) Amino acid sequence: any assignment conserving the relative pitch relationship,
i. e. 19-tet in an octave from R to I.
Tonal Assignment of Bases and Amino Acids. Chemical MIDI note (middle C=C3=60) Property Base A adenine A3 69 purine, complementary to T T thymine G3 67 pyrimidine, complementary to A C cytosine E3 64 pyrimidine, complementary to G G guanine D3 62 purine, complementary to C Amino acid I isoleucine B4 83 hydrophobic V valine A4 81 hydrophobic L leucine F4# 78 hydrophobic M methionine E4 76 hydrophobic F phenylalanine D4 74 aromatic, hydrophobic W tryptophan B3 71 aromatic, hydrophobic Y tyrosine A3 69 aromatic, hydroxyl C cysteine G3 67 disulfide-bonding A alanine E3 64 small, hydrophobic P proline D3 62 helix-breaking G glycine C3 60 small, flexible T threonine A2 57 hydroxyl S serine G2 55 hydroxyl Q glutamine F2 53 amide N asparagine D2 50 amide E glutamate C2 48 acidic D aspartate A1# 46 acidic H histidine G1 43 weakly basic K lysine F1 41 basic R arginine D1# 39 basic
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