Genome Quilts, Beverly St. Clair

Red Cone Quilt, front
Red Cone Quilt, back
Hepatitis C Virus Quilt, front
  1. Human red cone pigment gene (63" × 63")
  2. WIG-1 gene (59" × 59")
  3. Hepatitis Virus C gene (63" × 70")

Genome Quilts

Beverly St. Clair has originated a way of encoding genetic information in quilt designs. The four bases in DNA are represented as follows:

AdenineAAquilt square
CytosineCCquilt square
GuanineGGquilt square
ThymineTTquilt square

Thus, the base sequence,

GATCGCCCTT

becomes

a single row of quilt squares

and

GATCGCCCTT
TCCAACAGTT
GCGCAGCCCT

becomes

three rows of quilt squares

Learn more about the origin of the genome quilt design.