Genetic Sonification Production
Sam Ferguson

This sonification  was an  attempt to  provide a  way of
quickly surveying the  exons and introns of  the gene to
find  patterns.  The  introns   were  found  by  pattern
matching  for  gt-ag  pairs,   although  this  was  very
rudimentary and  not particularly successful.  The start
and stop codons were also found by pattern matching. The
codons were  not easy  to find as  they depended  on the
frameshift,  which changed  after the  gt-ag pairs  were
found.  I did  not  have time  to  investigate the  full

The three tones were represented by tonal notes in the C
major  scale.  Each  of  the four  possibilities  was  a
particular note from four scalar values (first letter C4
D4 E4  F4, second G4  A4 B4 C5, third  C5 D5 E5  F5) and
then the three notes were presented in a temporal order.

When the start codon is found the length of the tones is
increased. The  harmonic triads are suppressed  when the
gt splice  point of  the gt-ag pair  is found,  and then
returned when the  ag splice point is  found. The Intron
is represented with  a lower set of tones,  one for each
nucleotide.

Patterns  can  be  heard  in the  resulting  tones.  The
ascending pattern should provide information as to where
each codons  begin. It  is also quite  easy to  hear the
first  and notes  of each  codon. Chordal  shapes appear
when  letters are  repeated -  eg.  AAA is  C4, G4,  C5.