Reading and Writing Digital Information in TNA
Abstract
DNA has become a popular soft material for low energy, high-density information storage, but it is susceptible to damage through oxidation, pH, temperature, and nucleases in the environment. Here, we describe a new molecular chemotype for data archiving based on the unnatural genetic framework of α-l-threofuranosyl nucleic acid (TNA). Using a simple genetic coding strategy, 23 kilobytes of digital information were stored in DNA-primed TNA oligonucleotides and recovered with perfect accuracy after exposure to biological nucleases that destroyed equivalent DNA messages. We suggest that these results extend the capacity for nucleic acids to function as a soft material for low energy, high-density information storage by providing a safeguard against information loss caused by nuclease digestion.
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There are new ideas related to the use of chemical analogues of DNA, such as TNA, with even higher possible storage densities.
“There are even new ideas related to the use of chemical analogues of DNA, such as TNA, with even higher possible storage densities [26].”
From DNA Data Storage. (2023) · cites this paper as [26]
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- Authors
- Yang, K., McCloskey, C. M., & Chaput, J. C.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Chaput, John C.
- Venue
- ACS Synthetic Biology
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2020-09-23
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 2936-2942
- ISSN
- 2161-5063 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3088830163
- Cited by
- 41
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 6
- FWCI
- 1.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- ACS Synthetic Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB 1946312)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › DNA and Biological Computing
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › DNA and Nucleic Acid Chemistry
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Advanced biosensing and bioanalysis techniques
- Keywords
- TNA, DNA data storage, nuclease resistance, genetic coding, information recovery, synthetic nucleic acids, data archiving
- MeSH terms
- DNA, Humans, Nucleic Acids, Oligonucleotides, DNA Primers
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