Multiple Reading Frames in DNA

[Tim Taylor]

Hi,

As a non-biologist, I have a small question which I hope someone
can give me a quick answer to.

I'm sure I've read in the dim and distant past that the DNA of
some organisms includes sections which are transcribed multiple
times starting from different bases (different reading frames).
These therefore get translated into completely different
proteins, so the genome is encoding multiple messages in the  
same bit of DNA.

Can someone tell me what this phenomenon is called (if it has a
special name), and give me an example (with a reference to a
book, paper etc. if at all possible)?

Thanks in advance,

Tim 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Taylor, Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of
Edinburgh
            tel (+44)-131-650-3081 or -650-4493  fax -650-6899
                web http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/students/timt/