New approaches for data archiving are required due to a constant increase in digital information production and the lack of a capacitive, low maintenance storage medium. High-density information encoding and longevity are the two important advantages which have recently made DNA an attractive target for information storage. The DNA-based storage scheme could be scaled far beyond current global information volumes. However, creating new copies of the same encoded information by producing new artificial DNA sequences is not financially viable. Moreover, a naked DNA molecule can be greatly affected by UV, atmospheric water and oxygen thus resulting in DNA mutations and consequently changes in the stored information.
My husband Iztok (http://www.iztok-jr-fister.eu/) and I conceived an idea and designed our pilot experiment to show the great potential of plants and their seeds in circumventing these drawback of DNA-based data memory. We have encoded a «Hello World» computer program into a DNA code, synthesized it and cloned this Code DNA into a plasmid vector to be further used for transforming Nicotiana benthamiana plants. The encoded program was reconstructed from the resulting seedlings with 100% accuracy and the plant said «Hello World» on the screen. Our approach demonstrates that artifficialy encoded data can be stored and multiplied within plants without affecting their vigour and fertility. It is inherent in progenies and authentically reproducible while the reduced metabolism of the seeds provides an additional protection for encoded DNA archives.
This is the first report about the utilization of a multi-cellular, eukaryotic organism for storing valuable data. It goes beyond plant genome manipulations for biotechnological research and plant breeding or simple embedded «watermarks». It takes the advantage of a multi-cellular organism and serves for propagating the encoded information in daughter cells. It avoids the costs of synthetically producig multiple copies of the same encoded information, which is currently estimated to be $ 12,400 per MB for information storage in naked DNA. Also stored within a seed, DNA is protected against alterations and degradation over time without the need of any active maintenace.
As for manipulating and storing archives, our approach could leverage a new look at accessing, browsing and reading information since hand-held, single-molecule DNA sequencers are becoming available and their upgrade to being able to obtain an encoded sequence directly from a leaf, could be the next point in development. And since imagination prevails over knowledge, one day all disc plantages could be replaced by plant-tech.
Source:
http://www.karin-l-fister.com/
