RE: Phonosemantics and parallels in the genome (and elsewhere)

From: Gatherer, D. (Derek) (D.Gatherer@organon.nhe.akzonobel.nl)
Date: Thu Jan 25 2001 - 11:41:27 GMT

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From: "Gatherer, D. (Derek)" <D.Gatherer@organon.nhe.akzonobel.nl>
To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: Phonosemantics and parallels in the genome (and elsewhere)
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 12:41:27 +0100
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    Jess, are you still there? I'm still keen to hear about your codon cube, if
    you have any more information. Actually the problem is more tractable than
    I estimated. When I said:

    "
    There are 24 ways to order the 4 nucleotides:

    ACGT CAGT GCAT TCGA
    AGCT CGAT GACT TGCA
    ATCG CTAG GTCA TACG
    ATGC CTGA GTAC TAGC
    AGTC CGTA GCTA TCAG
    ACTG CATG GATC TGAC
    "

    That was true, but the next bit......

    "
    If each ordering is considered a symbol (number each 1 to 24 or give each a
    unique character in a 24-letter alphabet), then this is equivalent to asking
    how many 3-character words we can get from a 24-letter alphabet. So the
    answer is: 13824 possible codon-amino acid cubes.
    "

    fails to take account of the fact that many of the cubes will be mirror
    images, and therefore can be considered to be the same cube. For instance:

    cube x=ACGT, y=CAGT, z=TCGA for instance

    will actually be the same cube, or a chiral form of the same cube, as

    cube x=CAGT, y=ACGT, z=TCGA once you hold it up to a mirror.

    and so on. So the problem is simply one of how many combinations of the 24
    orderings we need, not how many permutations!! Doh!! Of course, if you
    could remember how you got to your result, it would be easier still.........
    (Then we could start thinking about _why_ the cube has the properties you
    describe, which is of course the interesting part of the problem).

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