It is known that quasi-cyclic (QC) codes over the finite field Fq correspond to certain Fq[x]-modules. A QC code C is specified by a generator polynomial matrix G whose rows generate C as an Fq[x]-module. The reversed code of C, denoted by R, is the code obtained by reversing all codewords of C while the dual code of C is denoted by C⊥. We call C reversible, self-orthogonal, and self-dual if R = C, C⊥ ⊇ C, and C⊥ = C, respectively. In this study, for a given C, we find an explicit formula for a generator polynomial matrix of R. A necessary and sufficient condition for C to be reversible is derived from this formula. In addition, we reveal the relations among C, R, and C⊥. Specifically, we give conditions on G corresponding to C⊥ ⊇ R, C⊥ ⊆ R, and C = R = C⊥. As an application, we employ these theoretical results to the construction of QC codes with best parameters. Computer search is used to show that there exist various binary reversible self-orthogonal QC codes that achieve the upper bounds on the minimum distance of linear codes.

In DNA data storage and computation, DNA strands are required to meet certain combinatorial constraints. This paper shows how some of these constraints can be achieved simultaneously. First, we use the algebraic structure of irreducible cyclic codes over finite fields to generate cyclic DNA codes that satisfy reverse and complement properties. We show how such DNA codes can meet constant guanine-cytosine content constraint by MacWilliams-Seery algorithm. Second, we consider fulfilling the run-length constraint in parallel with the above constraints, which allows a maximum predetermined number of consecutive duplicates of the same symbol in each DNA strand. Since irreducible cyclic codes can be represented in terms of the trace function over finite field extensions, the linearity of the trace function is used to fulfill a predefined run-length constraint. Thus, we provide an algorithm for constructing cyclic DNA codes with the above properties including run-length constraint. We show numerical examples to demonstrate our algorithms generating such a set of DNA strands with all the prescribed constraints.