The self-organization of genomes

Menzerath-Altmann law is a general law of human language stating, for instance, that the longer a word, the shorter its syllables. With the metaphor that genomes are words and chromosomes are syllables, we examine if genomes also obey the law. We find that longer genomes tend to be made of smaller c...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Ferrer Cancho, Ramon|||0000-0002-7820-923X, Forns Fradera, Núria
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2010
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/180111
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/180111
https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cplx.20296
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Computational linguistics
Menzerath-Altmann law
Genomes
Chromosomes
Self-organization
Quantitative linguistics
Lingüística computacional
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Intel·ligència artificial::Llenguatge natural
Descripción
Sumario:Menzerath-Altmann law is a general law of human language stating, for instance, that the longer a word, the shorter its syllables. With the metaphor that genomes are words and chromosomes are syllables, we examine if genomes also obey the law. We find that longer genomes tend to be made of smaller chromosomes in organisms from three different kingdoms: fungi, plants, and animals. Our findings suggest that genomes self-organize under principles similar to those of human language.