DNA data storage is an attractive technology: you can store a lot of data for a long time
The advantage of our method is that it is moreefficient in terms of time and money. If you are not sure which file contains the data you need, you do not need to sequence all the DNA in the search. Instead, you can sequence much smaller portions of DNA files and preview them.
Kyle Tomek, lead author of the paper and a graduate student at North Carolina State University
Users “name” their data files by attaching DNA sequences, called primer-binding sequences, to the ends of the DNA strands: these are what store the information.
To identify and retrieve the file, mostsystems use polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Specifically, they use a small DNA primer that matches a specific sequence to identify the DNA strands that contain the desired file.
A primer is a short nucleic acid fragment or linked molecule that serves as the starting point for DNA replication.
The system then uses PCR to domultiple copies of the corresponding DNA strands, and then sequencing the entire sample. Because the process creates multiple copies of the target DNA strands, the target strand signal is stronger than the rest of the sample, allowing the target DNA sequence to be identified and the file read.
However, one of the problems encounteredDNA data storage researchers, is that if two or more files have the same name, PCR will inadvertently copy portions of multiple data files. As a result, users must give files very clear names.
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