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Asian Scientist Journal (Aug. 14, 2023) — For researchers engaged on long-lasting knowledge storage, DNA is a beautiful medium. It carries genetic data with excessive constancy throughout generations and thru a number of cell divisions in multicellular organisms. It’s so sturdy that DNA fragments have been present in fossils as outdated as over two million years.
Laborious drives save knowledge in a binary code, with data coded in a string of 1s and 0s. DNA, alternatively, has a four-letter nucleotide code—ATCG. Storing any data in DNA requires translation of the binary codes right into a string of nucleotides adopted by synthesis of the DNA sequence. This manner, scientists have saved a film, a music album, and even all of Wikipedia in DNA.
Encoding knowledge straight into DNA eradicate the necessity for DNA synthesis however such efforts have been ineffective in encoding 2D data like pictures. In a current examine revealed in Nature Communications, researchers from the Nationwide College of Singapore have been capable of do exactly that: Captured pictures straight into the DNA of dwelling micro organism utilizing mild.
Explaining their alternative of technique, Cheng Kai Lim, a graduate researcher and the primary creator of the paper stated that “mild is an affordable supply of knowledge, it’s simply programmable, and also you don’t want any fancy gear.”
The crew’s dwelling digital camera, named BacCam, makes use of two routinely used methods: optogenetics and DNA barcoding. Optogenetics is leveraging light-sensitive molecules to govern cells; DNA barcodes are brief particular sequences of DNA that act as tags.
The researchers used 96-well microtiter plates having 12 rows and 6 columns of tiny wells. A monochrome picture of decision 12 X 8 pixels was projected onto the plate, every pixel comparable to a nicely. For “mild” pixels, a light-activated optogenetic system makes a reduce at a selected location within the bacterial DNA in these wells. Moreover, samples in every nicely had been tagged with a unique barcode.
Nicely-specific barcodes, or well-codes because the crew known as them, ensured that samples from every nicely could possibly be pooled collectively for storage. DNA sequences contained details about which pixel they corresponded to and what the state of the pixel was (mild or darkish). Then the pooled DNA was sequenced to retrieve the picture.
Demonstrating the sturdiness of this technique, the researchers had been capable of retrieve pictures after per week in several harsh circumstances. These included freezing cells at -20 °C, preserving them in an oven at 60 °C, and drying them right into a powder.
Subsequent, the researchers checked out the potential for storing a number of pictures collectively, with one microwell plate for every picture. They pooled collectively samples from the 5 plates, after tagging all samples in every plate with an image-specific barcode. On this case, every DNA sequence contained details about i) which picture it corresponded to, ii) the placement of the pixel within the picture, and iii) its mild or darkish state.
Sequencing the pooled DNA reconstructed all 5 pictures with over 90% of the pixels in every picture being learn appropriately. The picture retrieval was extremely correct even when the samples had been diluted to an element of 100.
In future work, the analysis crew plans to seize coloured photos. Colours are typically coded in RGB (pink, inexperienced and blue) values, with completely different values of the three main colours. Placing collectively optogenetic circuits that react to the pink, inexperienced, and blue lights, may permit them to seize the total spectrum of sunshine, stated Lim. Virtually, this may require extremely delicate optogenetic circuits which can be capable of encode ranges, and never simply the presence, of sunshine.
The subsequent frontier for DNA knowledge storage could possibly be capturing video straight into DNA. “Folks have developed methods to encode data in a temporal method. We’re exploring how these strategies could be included into our system,” Lim added.
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Supply: Nationwide College of Singapore; Photographs: Yipei Lieu/ Asian Scientist Journal
The paper could be discovered at: A organic digital camera that captures and shops pictures straight into DNA | Nature Communications
Disclaimer: This text doesn’t essentially mirror the views of AsianScientist or its workers.
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