A total of 22 genomes are screened for atypical regions (Table 1 and Supplementary Material 1). On the average, the 6-cluster scheme offers the best partition. However, in a single case (Aeropyrum pernix), nine clusters are required. In general, a single cluster is devoted to rRNA. The mean distance of windows to host varies over species from 121 to 145 (mean = 132, coefficient of variation = 3%). It is tightly correlated (P-value for the Pearson correlation coefficient <10 À4 ) with the cut-off distance that varies from 178 to 289 (mean = 234, coefficient of variation = 14%). Such large variations can hardly be explained on the mere basis of statistical fluctuations. As already observed (31, 45, 46) , variation of oligonucleotides usage along genome depends on species and can consequently be considered as a species property.