DNA Fountain enables a robust and efficient storage architecture

Area of Science:

• Biotechnology
• Bioinformatics
• Data Storage

Background:

• DNA is a promising molecule for high-density digital information storage.
• Existing DNA data storage methods face challenges in robustness and retrieval efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a highly robust DNA data storage strategy named DNA Fountain.
• To approach the theoretical information capacity per nucleotide in DNA storage.
• To demonstrate efficient and high-fidelity data retrieval from DNA.

Main Methods:

• Developed the DNA Fountain storage strategy for encoding digital data into DNA oligonucleotides.
• Stored diverse files, including a computer operating system and a movie (2.14 × 10^6 bytes).
• Achieved perfect data retrieval using minimal sequencing coverage (single Illumina tile).

Main Results:

• Successfully stored and perfectly retrieved 2.14 × 10^6 bytes of data using DNA Fountain.
• Demonstrated the capability for 2.18 × 10^15 perfect data retrievals from the original DNA sample.
• Achieved unprecedented data density of 215 petabytes per gram of DNA, significantly exceeding previous reports.

Conclusions:

• DNA Fountain represents a significant advancement in DNA data storage, offering exceptional robustness and capacity.
• The strategy enables massive data storage and retrieval with high fidelity, paving the way for practical applications.
• This breakthrough pushes the boundaries of data storage density, highlighting DNA's potential for future archival needs.