Enzymatic DNA synthesis for digital information storage

Abstract

DNA is an emerging storage medium for digital data but its adoption is hampered by limitations of phosphoramidite chemistry, which was developed for single-base accuracy required for biological functionality. Here, we establish a de novo enzymatic DNA synthesis strategy designed from the bottom-up for information storage. We harness a template-independent DNA polymerase for controlled synthesis of sequences with user-defined information content. We demonstrate retrieval of 144-bits, including addressing, from perfectly synthesized DNA strands using batch-processed Illumina and real-time Oxford Nanopore sequencing. We then develop a codec for data retrieval from populations of diverse but imperfectly synthesized DNA strands, each with a ~30% error tolerance. With this codec, we experimentally validate a kilobyte-scale design which stores 1 bit per nucleotide. Simulations of the codec support reliable and robust storage of information for large-scale systems. This work paves the way for alternative synthesis and sequencing strategies to advance information storage in DNA.