Simplicity, function, and legibility in an enhanced ambigraphic nucleic acid notation

Abstract

We previously showed that an ambigraphic nucleic acid notation, based on symmetrical lowercase Roman characters, permits users to complement DNA by physically rotating the sequence text 180°. This article describes an enhanced ambigraphic notation, which uses concept-related symbol design, rather than the arbitrary set of symbols that constitute the Roman alphabet, to logically encode the four DNA bases and 11 ambiguity characters. As ambigrams, the symbols continue to permit the rapid derivation of complementary sequences and visualization of palindromic DNA. In addition, the new AmbiScript notation uses legibility principles to support the identification of sequence polymorphism and improves writing efficiency by requiring fewer strokes per character than the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) notation.