Fuzzy genomes.

Abstract

A metric space - dubbed the fuzzy polynucleotide space - is presented for diagnostic purposes in the widest sense to measure the degree of difference and similarity between sequences of nucleic acids. To this end, these acids are transformed to ordered fuzzy sets. They thus become representable as points in n-dimensional unit hypercubes that may be endowed with various metrics. In this way, genetic information in particular and genetics in general become amenable to fuzzy theory, geometry, and topology.