The way to keep information for thousands of years is through the storage of DNA
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DNA is good at storing information. In fact, the most basic task of DNA is to store information.
On the one hand, DNA stores information with high efficiency and low loss. The genetic information carried by DNA is stored in the order of the four nucleotide bases cytosine (C), guanine (G), adenine (A) and thymine (T). Each of the three bases encodes an amino acid. A gene can take hundreds or thousands of bases to make a protein. For the information stored on DNA, it would take 200 phone books to print the 3 billion base sequence in full. However, the 23,600 genes in humans occupy only about 2 centimeters of DNA.
On the other hand, DNA storage of information can provide massive information density and extraordinary half-life. Today, the data generated every year in the world requires 418 billion 1TB hard drives to fit, and only 1 kilogram of DNA material is required to store this data on DNA. Not only that, but depending on the different arrangements of biological bases, this information can also be stored at -18°C for 1 million years. In contrast, while paper rots, hard drives degrade, and even rocks weather, DNA can completely ignore these physical processes and preserve the knowledge and history of human civilization.
For decades, scientists have been trying to solve the information storage problem that is increasingly plaguing human beings through DNA, inspired by DNA's storage of human genetic information.
Now, Tianjin University has announced that the synthetic biology team of Tianjin University has innovated the DNA storage algorithm to store ten selected Dunhuang murals in DNA. Through accelerated aging experiments, it is verified that the mural information can be stored for thousands of years at room temperature in the laboratory, and can be stored at 9.4°C. preserved for 20,000 years . The algorithm supports DNA molecules to become one of the most reliable data storage media in the world, which can preserve human cultural heritage information facing the crisis of aging and damage for thousands of years.
It is worth mentioning that although DNA storage is efficient and low-consumption, as a chain biomacromolecule, it will face risks such as DNA breakage and degradation when stored at room temperature in vitro, which seriously affects the long-term reliability of information storage. In this regard, the research team designed a sequence reconstruction algorithm based on the Debreying graph theory to solve problems such as DNA breakage. The algorithm combines greedy path search and cyclic redundancy check code to achieve efficient de novo assembly of broken DNA fragments, which in principle supports the long-term reliability of DNA storage.
Combining the sequence reconstruction algorithm (inner code) and fountain code algorithm (outer code), the team designed and encoded 6.8MB of Dunhuang murals, and synthesized 210,000 DNA fragments carrying picture information. For the long-term reliability of the data, the team prepared an aqueous DNA sample without any special protection, and accelerated the fragmentation and degradation of the sample at 70°C for up to ten weeks.
More than 80% of the processed DNA fragments have breakage errors, and the designed sequence reconstruction algorithm can still accurately assemble and decode more than 96.4% of the fragments, and then use the fountain code to solve the problem of missing a small number of fragments, the original Dunhuang fresco pictures can still be Perfect recovery. According to theoretical calculations, this degree of high-temperature damage is equivalent to natural preservation at room temperature of 25°C for 1,000 years or 9.4°C for 20,000 years.
The explosion of big data and artificial intelligence has prompted mankind to find more sources of emerging computing power, and the innovative technology of DNA storage is likely to be the future of human intelligence. The breakthrough of DNA storage technology naturally means that people are moving towards The next step in storage technology in the future.