We propose the concepts of cell and system of graphical representation of DNA sequences, and introduce a class of 2-D graphical representations based on different designed cells. The representation also avoids loss of information associated with crossing and overlapping of the corresponding curve. As application, we outline one such approach, which is based on the construction of a vector whose components are the normalized leading eigenvalues of the L/L matrices associated with DNA. The examination of similarities/dissimilarities among the coding sequences of the first exon of beta-globin gene of different species illustrates the utility of the approach. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.