[Biopython-dev] [Bug 2381] back-translate

[Peter]

Howard Salis wrote:
> Yes. Back-translating a sequence is important in codon optimization,
> searching for homologous proteins, etc.

Unlike forward translation, transcription, back-transcription, 
complements and reverse complements, back-translation is not a 
one-to-one mapping.

In your examples, would you want to know all:
- all possible back translations (as unambigous nucleotides)
- all possible back translations (as ambigous nucleotides)
- a possible back translation (using ambiguous nucleotides)
- a possible back translation (using un-ambiguous nucleotides)

For example, back translating an Tyr => UAC or UAU => UAW (nice and 
clear - we can represent this perfectly with a single ambiguous codon).
On the other hand, Arg => AGA, AGG, CGA, CGC, CGG, CGU => AGR or CGN

Oh, and would you expect DNA or RNA back?

Peter