I'd suggest s/\]([ATCG]+)\[/"N" x length($1)/e, which replaces the ]...[ part with one "N" for each letter in between the closing and opening bracket.
Jeff japhy Pinyan,
P.L., P.M., P.O.D, X.S.:
Perl,
regex,
and perlhacker How can we ever be the sold short or the cheated, we who for every service have long ago been overpaid? ~~ Meister Eckhart