Some Pragmatic Approaches to the Potential Use of Deoxyribonucleic Acid as a Computer Information Storage Medium

摘要

DNA is being seriously considered as a data storage medium for computers due to its potential for extremely high density information storage for very long periods of time. Unfortunately, numerous difficult problems exist which are preventing the use of DNA or other organic polymersfrom realizing the potential of ultrahigh density long-lasting data storage. Among these problems is the relatively slow speed of encoding data into DNA by synthesis, slow random access to DNA encoded "files" in solution, and the mere existence of DNA in solution, because the water solventadds a great deal of weight, volume and could promote hydrolysis of the DNA especially if pH shifts away from neutrality. This opinion paper presents several concepts to potentially solve the aqueous solvent and slow random access memory (RAM) problems. These concepts are elimination of waterby "combing" wet encoded single-stranded DNA onto plastic or silica discs similar to compact discs (CDs) or digital video discs (DVDs) and labeling particular bases with fluorophores to distinguish the fluorescent labeled bases as 1s versus the dark unlabeled bases representing 0s. Dried DNAdiscs could be coated with a clear polymer for long-term storage and data could be retrieved with a laserbased CD/DVD fluorescence reader similar to extant readers. It may even eventually be feasible to optically encode information into DNA or similar polymers by pulsing a thin fluid layerof DNA or other polymer on the disc with a laser to promote covalent linkage of photoactive fluorophores or dark dyes at specific loci in the DNA or other polymers to create a sequence of 1s and 0s in situ on the disc.