Source | Xinhua News Agency
Tianjin University has made a major breakthrough in DNA storage, which can allow information to be preserved for thousands of years
The reporter learned from Tianjin University that the school's synthetic biology team has innovated the DNA storage algorithm and stored ten selected Dunhuang murals in DNA. Through accelerated aging experiment, the mural information can be preserved for thousands of years at room temperature in the laboratory, and at 9.4℃ for 20,000 years. This algorithm supports DNA molecules to become one of the most reliable data storage media in the world, and can preserve information on human cultural heritage facing the crisis of aging and damage for thousands of years.
This result was recently published in "Nature Communications".
From knotting, Cangjie's character creation to modern magneto-optical storage technologies such as tapes and hard disks, the development of human civilization is closely related to storage technology. With the advancement of science and technology, data storage methods are constantly iterative and innovating. Professor Yuan Yingjin, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Professor of Tianjin University, has led the team to be committed to the next generation of storage technology - DNA storage. "According to international data companies, the total global data volume will reach an astonishing 175ZB (1ZB≈10 bytes to the power of 21). Data centers are being built all over the world, and the energy consumption of data centers is amazing. DNA storage is regarded as a highly potential storage technology due to its high storage density and low energy consumption processing, and has become a new opportunity to deal with the challenges of data storage growth." Academician Yuan Yingjin introduced.
In August 2021, Professor Yuan Yingjin's team made a major breakthrough in DNA storage, and re-encoded and synthesized a yeast artificial chromosome with a length of 254886 base pairs dedicated to data storage. Two classic pictures and a video were stored in artificial chromosomes, using yeast propagation to achieve stable data replication, and using nanopore sequencing devices to achieve rapid data readout and error-free recovery.
DNA storage is efficient and low-consumption, but as a chain biomacromolecule, it will face risks such as DNA breakage and degradation when stored in vitro at room temperature, which seriously affects the long-term reliability of information storage and is a key scientific issue that needs to be solved urgently. In this regard, Yuan Yingjin's team designed a sequence reconstruction algorithm based on De Breying's theory to solve problems such as DNA breakage. This algorithm combines greedy path search and cyclic redundant check code to achieve efficient de novo assembly of broken DNA fragments, which in principle supports the long-term reliability of DNA storage.
combined with the sequence reconstruction algorithm (inner code) and the fountain code algorithm (outer code), the team designed and encoded 6.8MB Dunhuang murals and synthesized 210,000 DNA fragments carrying picture information. For the long-term reliability of the data, the team prepared a sample of DNA aqueous solution without any special protection and accelerated sample breakage and degradation at 70°C for up to ten weeks. More than 80% of the processed DNA fragments have rupture errors. Relying on the designed sequence reconstruction algorithm, more than 96.4% of the fragments can still be accurately assembled and decoded, and then the fountain code solves the problem of missing a small number of fragments. The original Dunhuang mural pictures can still be perfectly restored. According to theoretical calculations, this degree of high temperature damage is equivalent to the natural preservation of 25℃ for a thousand years or 9.4℃ for 20,000 years.
This is another important breakthrough in the in vitro storage model of DNA information based on artificial synthetic chromosomes.
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