97-05-032

Abstract:
Cycles in Secondary Structure Graphs

Peter F. Stadler

Secondary structure graphs are a class of outer-planar graphs that are used in molecular biology as representations of the spatial structure of nucleic acid molecules. The elementary cycles of secondary structure graphs can be characterized in terms of a partial order on a subset of edges. It is proved that the the minimum cycle basis of secondary structure graphs is unique.

keywords: Minimum Cycle Basis - outer-planar graph - RNA secondary structure - elementary cycles

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