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Bioinformatics Advance Access published online on July 3, 2008
Bioinformatics, doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btn342
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© The Author (2008). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Watermarking sexually reproducing diploid organisms

Dominik Heider , Daniel Kessler and Angelika Barnekow *

Department of Experimental Tumorbiology, University of Muenster, Badestrasse 9, 48149 Muenster, Germany

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Prof. Angelika Barnekow, E-mail: barneko{at}uni-muenster.de


  Abstract

Summary: DNA watermarks are used for hiding messages or for authenticating genetically modified organisms. Recently we presented an algorithm called DNA-Crypt for generating DNA based watermarks that can be integrated into the genome by using the characteristics of the degenerative genetic code. DNA-Crypt generates the watermark by replacing single bases and thus creating synonymous codons that encrypt the hidden information. Mutations within the integrated DNA sequence can be corrected using several mutation correction codes, to keep the hidden information intact. This method has successfully been tested in asexually replicating organisms like bacteria or yeast, where the watermark is duplicated with every cell division. It has been shown that DNA watermarks produced by DNA-Crypt do not influence the transcription or translation of a protein. In sexually reproducing diploid organisms, additional problems can occur, e.g. recombination events can destroy hidden information. Using population predictions as well as statistical analyses we identified a coupled Y-chromosomal/mitochondrial DNA watermarking procedure as the most appropriate for diploid organisms. We developed a mitochondria adapted version of DNA-Crypt, which is called Project Mito that can be used in combination with the original progam.

Availability: http://www.uni-muenster.de/Biologie.NeuroVer/Tumorbiologie/DNA-Crypt/index.html

Contact: barneko{at}uni-muenster.de

Password: WWUTB

Requirements: Java 5.0 or higher

Associate Editor: Prof. Martin Bishop

Received on April 30, 2008; revised on July 2, 2008; accepted on July 2, 2008

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