Z curve

This article is about a method for genome analysis. For the space filling curve, see Z-order (curve). For the weighting curve, see Z-weighting.
Z curve of C.elegans chromosome III

The Z curve (or Z-curve) method is a bioinformatics algorithm for genome analysis. The Z-curve is a three-dimensional curve that constitutes a unique representation of a DNA sequence, i.e., for the Z-curve and the given DNA sequence each can be uniquely reconstructed from the other.[1] The resulting curve has a zigzag shape, hence the name Z-curve.

  1. ^ Zhang CT, Zhang R, Ou HY (2003). "The Z curve database: a graphic representation of genome sequences". Bioinformatics. 19 (5): 593–99. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btg041. PMID 12651717.