A generalized information function applied to the genetic code.

The problem of the partitioning of the degeneracy of the codons in the genetic code is considered in the framework of a generalized information function IG = c sigma kpk(ln pk + G(Ek] where k represents the number of codons in a specific degeneracy class and G(Ek) is an arbitrary real valued function. For G(Ek) = 0 the Shannon information function is recovered. For a particular choice of G(Ek) that takes the dominance of even degeneracies into account, it is found by direct numerical calculations that the correct degeneracy partitioning appears as optimal values of the Ig function. This results is also supported by optimization calculations in which the generalized information function is regarded as a continuous function in the degeneracy variables.

On the information content of the genetic code.

In living organisms 20 amino acids along with the terminator value(s) are encoded by 64 codons giving a degeneracy of the codons as described by the genetic code. A basic theoretical problem of genetic codes is to explain the particular distribution of degeneracies of partitions involved in the codes. In this work the degeneracy problem is considered in the framework of information theory. It is shown by direct numerical evaluation of a certain degeneracy information function associated with the genetic code that the degeneracy of the codes is observed to be related to the optimization of this function.