DNA used for synthetic biology data storage

Nature : Synthetic biology creates cells that perform logic operations through gene expression. To truly function as computers, those cells need a way to store and access data, but most attempts to achieve that goal have been limited. Now, MIT’s Timothy Lu and Fahim Farzadfard have developed a way to use DNA for data storage that can take multiple inputs simultaneously and also keep a record of the accumulation of data over time. The technique, which they call Synthetic Cellular Recorders Integrating Biological Events (SCRIBE), uses a cellular structure known as a retron, which produces single-strand DNA. Lu and Farzadfard created a culture of Escherichia coli in which the retrons responded to the presence of a certain chemical by making the bacteria resistant to antibiotics. The amount of chemical introduced altered the proportion of the bacteria that became resistant. Used that way, the distributed system can store information in a range instead of in a binary state. Lu and Farzadfard also showed that the process is reversible, can be triggered by light, and can “record” the influence of multiple triggers.