A reversible watermarking for DNA sequence using an adaptive least square prediction error expansion

Abstract

With the development of bio-computing technology, the research for DNA watermarking, which considers DNA information a medium, has been showing interest. In particular, there is a need for a reversible DNA watermarking technology capable of DNA storage and forgery prevention of DNA sequence, and analyzing biological mutation processes by watermark while recovering perfectly the original DNA sequence. In this paper, we address a reversible watermarking method for noncoding DNA sequences using an adaptive prediction error expansion based on least square predictor. In our method, the 4-character nucleotide sequences of the noncoding region are converted into code values by the adjacent n nucleotide bases. Then, a least squares based prediction error for the current code coefficient is obtained, and this prediction error is expanded adaptively by the number of bits determined according to the condition of prediction error expansion. Here, a false start codon generation is prevented through a comparison search between the watermarked adjacent base sequences. The experimental results showed that our method has a higher watermark capacity than the conventional method and the mean prediction error extension method, and does not generate biological mutations and false start codons.