L’ADN comme mémoire informatique ?

Chroniques génomiques

DNA for information storage?

UMR 7268 ADÉS, Aix-Marseille, Université/EFS/ CNRS ; CoReBio PACA,case 901, Parc scientifique de Luminy, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09, France

^* brjordan@orange.fr

Abstract

The very high information density of DNA has prompted speculations on its use for information storage. The high costs of DNA synthesis and sequencing made this highly unpractical; however recent progress (notably array oligonucleotide synthesis) is changing the situation. A recent paper shows encoding and decoding of significant amounts of data (200 MB) with random access to individual files and faithful retrieval of content, at a cost that is still high but not extreme. Much progress remains to be achieved, but this use of DNA in now technically achievable and may eventually become practical.