We study the stochastic dynamics of sequences evolving by single site
mutations, segmental duplications, deletions, and random insertions. These
processes are relevant for the evolution of genomic DNA. They define a
universality class of non-equilibrium 1D expansion-randomization systems with
generic stationary long-range correlations in a regime of growing sequence
length. We obtain explicitly the two-point correlation function of the sequence
composition and the distribution function of the composition bias in sequences
of finite length. The characteristic exponent χ of these quantities is
determined by the ratio of two effective rates, which are explicitly calculated
for several specific sequence evolution dynamics of the universality class.
Depending on the value of χ, we find two different scaling regimes, which
are distinguished by the detectability of the initial composition bias. All
analytic results are accurately verified by numerical simulations. We also
discuss the non-stationary build-up and decay of correlations, as well as more
complex evolutionary scenarios, where the rates of the processes vary in time.
Our findings provide a possible example for the emergence of universality in
molecular biology.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figure