[Bioperl-l] DNA Sequencing two questions

[sunwukong]

I am not a medical professional but I have two DNA related questions.

A year or so ago I realized that if the standard building blocks of life 
were the amino acids GATC then they could be represented as a base 4 
number system (e.g., 0,1,2 and 3).  Then any life form could be 
represented by a number (it would be very long).  So I set out on a 
quest to do this with a small life form.  For fun I chose the Spanish 
Flu which I believe I found on an NIH site.  Then I set out and realized 
that there was no standard.  And I did not know if the number would be 
built with the most significant digit on the left or right.

1.  Is there a standard method for representing the ATCD molecules as 
numbers
g = 0
a = 1
t  = 2
c = 3

2. is the sequence read left to right or right to left?

note:  It may be biologically significant if the right values are 
assigned to the letters GATC, there could be a pattern somewhere that 
holds significant information.  One idea might be to look at DNA 
sequences in bases other than 4 to see if something jumps out.

http://www.insectscience.org/2.10/ref/fig5a.gif

VR
Pat Kirol
509 442-2214