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Some Lessons for Molecular Biology from Information Theory Lessons for Molecular Biology T. D. Schneider

Some Lessons for Molecular Biology from Information Theory

Thomas D. Schneider

National Cancer Institute, Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center, Laboratory of Experimental and Computational Biology, P. O. Box B, Frederick, MD 21702-1201. toms@ncifcrf.gov, http://www.lecb.ncifcrf.gov/~toms/

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$\fbox{\parbox{11.3cm}{ This paper is a chapter in a book, a festscrift in honour... ...Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing'', edited by Prof. Janusz Kacprzyk. } }$

Abstract:

Applying information theory to molecular biology problems clarifies many issues. The topics addressed are: how there can be precision in molecular interactions, how much pattern is stored in the DNA for genetic control systems, and the roles of theory violations, instrumentation, and models in science.

This paper is a short review of a few of the lessons I've learned from applying Shannon's information theory to molecular biology. Since there are so many distinct results, I call this emerging field `molecular information theory'. Many of the references and figures can be found at my web site [2], along with an earlier review [3] and a primer on information theory [4].

Tom Schneider
2003-04-04