The Practical and Pedagogical Advantages of an Ambigraphic Nucleic Acid Notation

The universally applied IUPAC notation for nucleic acids was adopted primarily to facilitate the mental association of G, A, T, C, and the related ambiguity characters with the bases they represent. However, it is possible to create a notation that offers greater support for the basic manipulations and analyses to which genetic sequences frequently are subjected. By designing a nucleic acid notation around ambigrams, it is possible to simplify the frequently applied process of reverse complementation and aid the visualization of palindromes. The ambigraphic notation presented here also uses common orthographic features such as stems and loops to highlight guanine and cytosine rich regions, support the derivation of ambiguity characters, and aid educators in teaching the fundamentals of molecular genetics.