Acta Astronautica Vol. 13, No. 9, pp. 573-578, 1986 0094-5767/86 $3.00 + 0.

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Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 1986 Pergamon Journals Ltd

SV40 D N A - - A MESSAGE FROM e E R I ?

HIROSHI NAKAMURA
Takaramachi 1-3-2, Katsushika-ku, Tokyo 124, Japan

(Received 2 November 1982; revised version received 2 July 1985)

Abstraet--A biological probe carrying a message and capable of encoding the Lunan's "star map" may
be one possible picture-information medium from an advanced society. Experiments were performed to
test the hypothesis that simian virus 40 DNA carries a message from an extraterrestrial intelligence.

1. INTRODUCTION origin that this virus was synthesized by a far

After the proposal of directed panspermia by Crick
and Orgel[1], it has been suggested that a simple
biological system carrying a information and capable
of self-reproducing in suitable environments may be
one possible channel for interstellar communication
(Marx). On the basis of biochemical analysis, Yokoo
and Oshima investigated that bacteriophage tpX174
D N A might be a message carrying virus from extra-
terrestrial intelligence. Unfortunately, however, the
arrays of nucleotides reported by them do not show
any significant picture. No scientific attempt has been
made to search for messages from ETI by biological
media except for tkX174 DNA.
In this paper the author attempts to decode a
message which SV40 D N A may contain based on an
idea that the Lunan's space probe[4] in the vicinity of
the Earth may have been sent by advanced society,
that is, the possible biological interstellar message
contained star maps.
2. SV40 DNA A N D ~ ERI
Intelligent beings far more advanced than we may
be able to prepare a message-carrying virus to simian
apes, dolphins and another higher animals on Earth.
SV40 is a cancer virus infectious to simian apes which
is able to watch heavens; its genetic material is one of
the most "familiar" for the host.
There are a number of possible objections to SV40
as a message carrier from an advanced society: For
instance, it is extremely difficult to understand why
a more advanced sender might not be capable of
predicting the fatal interaction between SV40 and
simian apes. However, a superior society may have
expected that the intelligent society on the Earth
discovers technological ways to overcome cancer
diseases soon after the society is interested in inter-
stellar communications. Though our biochemistry
can not comprehensively understand the origin of
SV40 and its interaction with the host DNA, it might
not be unreasonable to speculate on an artificial
573
advanced technology or a devilish one. Thus a pre-
liminary effort has been made to investigate whether
or not cancer virus SV40 D N A carries a message
from an advanced society.
A feature in the genetic structure of SV40 D N A is
the presence of threefold overlapping genes (Fig. 1)
[5]. A part of the coding sequence for VP1 protein is
overlapped with those of VP2 and VP3 proteins. The
coding sequence for VP3 protein is totally contained
in that for VP2 protein. This sequence which overlaps
VP1 and VP2 proteins, consists of 705 nucleotide
bases, that is, 235 codons, a product of two prime
numbers, 5 x 47. This number enables us to arrange
the sequence into an 5 x 47 or 47 x 5 array. Using the
arrays, I attempted to decode a interstellar message
according to Drake. The nucleotide sequence of this
region of SV40 D N A is listed in Fig. 2, and two
dimensional picture drawn from the sequence are in
Fig. 3. (the system used by Yokoo and Oshima who
presented their hypothetical message graphically).
Unfortunately, no significant picture is seen in those
"punched tapes".
By the way, the message on SV40 D N A would
have been sufficiently long, over the three proteins,
say, to achieved purpose before the copying error
when proliferation made all the messages meaning-
less. Concerning the site where the key message is
most likely to be encoded, hence, the sequence for
threefold overlapping genes seems the most probable
candidate. The threefold overlapping sequence part
consists of 123 nucleotides, the codons are 41,
again a prime number. Lunan's proposal about
constellation figures gave me the idea of blotting the
overlapping gene in the D N A array.
When triplets of single letters, AAAs and one CCC
are picked up a figure resemblance to a part of
constellation Eridanus was obtained (Fig. 4). The
only CCC codon might be a key star. It identifies E
Eri., which was one of the targets in Ozrna project,
and could be the address of the sender.
It might seem absurd to make up a star matt--like
a coordinates representing only a constellation seg-
 ATG GCT GTA GAT TTG AGT ATT CAG CAA GTA

T~T AGG CCA GAT GAT kCT GAG AGG TGG GAA

TAC TAT GAT ATT TTA GCT C~A AGC CAA AGT

TTT CCT GGA GTA CAA CCT AAT GTG CAG TCA

ACC TTT GTT CAC AGT GGT G~A TTT ATT G.aA

GTT CAG TAT CTT GAC AAA ~TT GAG GCT CCT
T ontigen
CCC AGA CAT TGG GGT GGT GGT GCA ~T CAA

CCA ACA CTT TTT AAT AG~ ACT GCT CCT CAG

GCC ATT TCT C,~A GCT TGG ATG TTG CCT TTA

TTT TGG CGT GTA ATA CTT CTA GGC CTG TAC

CAA /~aT GAC ATT CCT GGA AGT GTT ACT TCT

AGG CTC ACC TCA CAG GCT CTA AAA GCT TAT

GAG CTT G~A AGA AGA GAA GAT GGC CCC AAC

ACC CAA AGA TAT TTA AAA AAG AAA AGG aAG

AGG GAC AGT TTG GCA TTG TCC AGG GGC AGC Z
>

~GG ~TT TTA GAG GAA ~CC CA~ AAA ACC AAA

aCT ACT TGG ACA GT~ GGA ACC AGT GCA ~GT >

ATT AAT GCT CCT GTT GCC _ 4 ~ A GOT CGT CAT

AAT TGG TAT ~AC TCT AGG AGG AAT AGA

TTA C A _ & GAT TAC TAC AGT TCT AGG AGT TAA

TCT ACT TTG TCT CCC

ATT AGG CCT ACA ATG

Fig. 1. Genetic structure of SV40 DNA. Modified after a GTG AGA CAA GTA GCC
figure by Fiefs et a/.[5].
AAC AGG GAA GGG TTG

CAA ATA TCA TTT GGG

CAC ACC TAT GAT AAT

ATT GAT GAA GCA GAC

Fig. 2. Two hundred and thirty five triplet codons of VP3

protein reading frames.
 III I III J
I II
mR | II II I I II IIIII
II I II
am III Ill III |i
BIB IIIII
in
HI II lUll Ill
HI ni III
IBm UI i I I II I II i~--]
II II II IIII
II III
II II m
| n I III II
II II
Hi I III II IIII -I_---
i I luIIn II II
II III II
me IIIII I II
II II I II IIIII
III IIII IIIII -_---I
| II II III I
II I II
II I Iilll I 1 1 t:7
Ill II V~
I II I III
IIl
II I, IIII
I mR
I
Ii ii Hi I I I III
=n | mR i II IIII --i-_-
nan! II III in___ O
II
II III e~
I III II. I IIII II
II l I II II I I
Ilm u III
i I I II II
II
llllll III _m-m_'-
If I I I il II I
|m I lill I II
ii ! i P,
In -'" "i I
IIIIII I
ml II~
B C D E F G
t
Fig. 3. Possible two-dimensional pictures constructed from the sequence listed in Fig. 2. The nucleotide sequence (a g) were arranged in 5 47 arrays,
respectively, as in writing an English sentence (from top left to bottom right). In pictures (a), (c) and (e), dark squares were given to purine bases; in
(b), (d) and (f), guanine and cytosine were assigned dark squares; in (g) AAA and CCC codons were marked. Perhaps if the simple figure had been appeared
clearly, then the above objections could be overcome.
576 HIROSHI N A K A M U R A

T
[

!
3"

(a) (b)
Fig. 4. The threefold overlapping sequence i n the array shown in Fig. 3. (a) is interpreted as a part map
of Eridanus. In this picture E Eri. was marked with CCC codon. (b) is the constellation Eridanus.

..................................... o~- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7..~S

1234 ...........................................................

F"

m m m m m llttl m tl m J ~ l l t i l ] J
m m leeellesllll
m m I ] s m e l e e [ s e e e l e s e ~ t l
Ill m Illll[I]l[lll[lll
I]]lllllll]lll[ m II]] m Ill m I1 m I l l l ] m l

Fig. 5. T h e r e a r e r e i n s p e c t i o n s , arrangedin47x5arrays, o f F i g . 3. T h e s e l e t t e r s w e r e p u t i n orderfrom

b o t t o m ]e~ to top right.
 SV40 DNA-a message from e Eri 577

ment--but, once thought of, the system has certain
advantages for avoidance of prolixity, It is a more
efficient way to encode a picture than, for example,
a placement in which every star is to represent a
intersection on a grid completely; and the displace-
ment of stars within a square unit is likely to be
corrected with the lapse of time. Therefore, a message
carrying sequence in SV40 may be preserved as long
as the celestial view for the star map is maintained.
However, the virus carrying a star map will even-
tually be out-of-date noise. Therefore, the star map-
carrying particles should be revised occasionally,
when the star map will be behind the time. It seems
likely that a robot space-craft makes an infectious
virus carrying a up-to-date star map over thousands
of years. An advanced space-craft sent to our Solar
system investigated our biochemistry, synthesized a
message carrying virus and send to us every thousand
star which was to be recognized by simian apes or
human beings.
"Should we be surprised," Lunan wrote, "After its
prolonged failure to attract our attention by radio,
however, other channels of communication might
prove more effective now the roles are reversed." Not
having the other evidence in full, we cannot argue the
legitimation of this interpretation at present; but
there seems to be a definite possibility that SV40
DNA carries a biological message about e Eri. It is
a possibility, in view of the triplets, that the message
is a three-dimension system. (No effort has been
made to decode on this hypothesis).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1011
1
I ...J.~ F
_2 , f l

years.
It ~an just as well be argued, of course, that any IIIF Ii
4
accidents would make the star map meaningless, so
5
that any other overlapping gene parts arrays cannot
be quoted in support of the above interpretation with 6 I
any artificial figures. If the biological messages were 7
contained in the star map, therefore, the message
8
made has to be something more definite: the
accidental result should surely appear as some kind 9
of star map. If that geometrical pattern appears in .lo
,/
checkers, therefore, then the genetic messages were 11
subsidiary transmissions of constellation figures
clearly, intended to lead up to the important origin (a)

QTr
Oo

_.~ Bootes

,, "//
Canes Venatici
\
\
(b)
Fig. 6. (a). A star map drawn from the X 174s square arrays reported by Yokoo and Oshima. The picture
resembles a part of constellation Bootis. (b) is the constellation Bootis.
578 HIROSHI NAKAMURA
Next, I attempted to convert the nucleotide
sequence of~bXl74 DNA into a star map (Fig. 6. (a)).
The overlapping sequence examined by Yokoo and
Oshima gave a picture similar to a map of the vicinity
of Epsilon Bootis. The single AAA codon may
represent the position of Alpha Bootis. Can this
diagram be interpreted as supporting the Lunan's
hypothesis? By removing the guiding lines which
connect to stars on the graph, however, the constella-
tion Bootis is meaningless.
The purpose of this paper is to stress that bio-
logical media should not be neglected as possible
interstellar media and an advanced race may send a
star map as an initiation signal of interstellar com-
munications, and to encourage a more open-minded
approach.
Acknowledgement--The author is indebted to Professor T.
Oshima and Professor G. Marx for valuable discussions.
REFERENCES
1. F. H. C. Crick and L. E. Orgel, Directed Panspermia.
lcarus 19, 341-346 (1973).
2. G. Marx, Message through time. Acta Astronautica 6,
221-225 (1979).
3. H. Yokoo and T. Oshima, Is Bacteriophage X174
DNA a message from an ETI? Icarus 38, 148-153
(1979).
4. D. A. Lunan, Space probe from Epsilon Bootis.
Spaceflight 15, 122-131 (1973).
5. W. Fiers, R. Contreras, G. Haegeman, R. Rogiers,
A. Van de Voorde, H. Van Heuverswyn, J. Van Herre-
weghe, G. Volckaert and M. Ysebaert, Complete nucleo-
tide sequence of SV40 DNA. Nature, Lend. 273,
113-120 (1978).
6. F. D. Drake, Methods of communication: Message
content, search strategy, interstellar travel. In Inter-
stellar communication: Scientific Perspective (C. Pon-
namperuma and A. G. W. Cameron, eds), pp. 118--139.
Houghton Mifflin, Boston (1974).
7. F. D. Drake, Project OZMA. Physics Today 14 (4),
40-46 (1961).