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Science 13 September 2002:
Vol. 297. no. 5588, pp. 1789 - 1791
DOI: 10.1126/science.297.5588.1789b
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News of the Week

INFORMATICS:
The Genome Chose Its Alphabet With Care

David Bradley

Of all the nucleotide bases available, why did nature pick the four we know as A, T, G, and C for the genomic alphabet? One researcher believes that the choice incorporates a tactic for minimizing the occurrence of errors in the pairing of bases, in the same way that error-coding systems are incorporated into ISBNs on books, credit card numbers, bank accounts, and airline tickets.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)