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Syst Synth Biol. 2008 June; 2(1-2): 19–25.
Published online 2008 December 13. doi: 10.1007/s11693-008-9020-5.
PMCID: PMC2671590
Stabilizing synthetic data in the DNA of living organisms
Nozomu Yachie,1,2 Yoshiaki Ohashi,corresponding author1,3 and Masaru Tomita1,2,3
1Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University, Tsuruoka, 997-0017 Japan
2Systems Biology Program, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Fujisawa, 252-8520 Japan
3Biomedical Group, Human Metabolome Technologies, Inc., 246-2 Mizukami, Kakuganji, Tsuruoka, 997-0052 Yamagata Japan
Nozomu Yachie, Email: nzm/at/sfc.keio.ac.jp.
corresponding authorCorresponding author.
Received October 19, 2008; Revised November 19, 2008; Accepted November 25, 2008.
Abstract
Data-encoding synthetic DNA, inserted into the genome of a living organism, is thought to be more robust than the current media. Because the living genome is duplicated and copied into new generations, one of the merits of using DNA material is long-term data storage within heritable media. A disadvantage of this approach is that encoded data can be unexpectedly broken by mutation, deletion, and insertion of DNA, which occurs naturally during evolution and prolongation, or laboratory experiments. For this reason, several information theory-based approaches have been developed as an error check of broken DNA data in order to achieve data durability. These approaches cannot efficiently recover badly damaged data-encoding DNA. We recently developed a DNA data-storage approach based on the multiple sequence alignment method to achieve a high level of data durability. In this paper, we overview this technology and discuss strategies for optimal application of this approach.