Equivalence of two Fourier methods for biological sequences

Abstract.

 Two methods for defining Fourier power spectra for DNA sequences or other biological sequences are compared. The first method uses indicator sequences for each letter. The second method by Silverman and Linsker assigns to each letter a vertex of a regular tetrahedron in space, and this can be generalized to any dimension. While giving different Fourier transforms, it is shown that the power spectra of the two methods are essentially the same. This is also true if one replaces the Fourier transform in both methods with another linear transform, such as the Walsh transform.