Braid groups in genetic code

For every genetic code with finitely many generators and at most one relation, a braid group is introduced. The construction presented includes the braid group of a plane, braid groups of closed oriented surfaces, Artin— Brieskorn braid groups of series B, and allows us to study all of these groups from a unified standpoint. We clarify how braid groups in genetic code are structured, construct words in the normal form, look at torsion, and compute width of verbal subgroups. It is also stated that the system of defining relations for a braid group in two-dimensional manifolds presented in a paper by Scott is inconsistent. Supported by RFBR grant No. 02-01-01118. __________ Translated from Algebra i Logika, Vol. 45, No. 2, pp. 131–158, March–April, 2006.