Genetic Construct is a program that creates a visual construct of a genetic sequence. The four elements of the DNA code, GATC, are translated to color pixels that are elements of the construct. Exploration of the construct can provide insight into the genetic code, with the potential discovery of genetic patterns or structures with biological importance in gene regulation and protein function. The adjacent image is the construct of the 46kb sequence of the FMR1 gene that shows a clear band of the CpG region adjacent to the CGG repeat known to undergo mutation leading to fragile X syndrome. The post Genetic Construct Program discusses the program further.
Genetic Construct was written in Python programming language, and requires Python 2.6 interpreter and the Python modules Pygame 1.8 and Numpy 1.3. The construct can be manipulated from an interface panel that I programmed using my Interphase module. To execute the source, use the command ‘python construct.py’. Executable builds are also provided that are packaged with the Python/modules. Genetic Construct is released under the GPL v3 license.
Version 1.3 Submitted by Jim on February 26, 2012
