A breakthrough study takes significant step forward in the quest to develop a DNA-based storage system for digital data.
Digital data is growing at an exponential rate today because of our dependency on gadgets and it requires robust long-term storage. Data storage is slowly becoming challenging because current digital technology is not able to provide a solution. An example being that more digital data has been created in the past two years than in all of history of kompyuta, in fact 2.5 quintillion byte {1 quintillion byte = 2,500,000 Terabytes (TB) = 2,500,000,000 Gigabytes (GB)} of data is being created every day in the world. This includes data on social networking sites, online banking transactions, records of companies and organization, data from satellites, surveillance, research, development etc. This data is huge and unstructured. Therefore, it is now a big challenge to tackle huge storage requirements for data and its exponential growth, especially for organizations and corporations who require robust long-term storage.
Chaguzi zinazopatikana kwa sasa ni diski kuu, diski za macho (CD), vijiti vya kumbukumbu, viendeshi vya flash, na kiendeshi cha juu zaidi cha tepi au diski za macho za BluRay ambazo huhifadhi takriban Terabytes 10 (TB) za data. Vifaa kama hivyo vya kuhifadhi ingawa vinatumiwa kwa kawaida vina shida nyingi. Kwanza, zina maisha ya rafu ya chini hadi ya kati na zinahitaji kuhifadhiwa chini ya hali bora ya joto na unyevu ili ziweze kudumu miongo mingi na hivyo kuhitaji nafasi maalum za kuhifadhi. Karibu hizi zote hutumia nguvu nyingi, ni nyingi na hazifanyiki na zinaweza kuharibiwa katika kuanguka rahisi. Baadhi yao ni ghali sana, mara nyingi wanakabiliwa na hitilafu ya data na hivyo hawana nguvu za kutosha. Chaguo ambalo limekubaliwa na shirika linaitwa cloud computing - mpangilio ambao kampuni kimsingi huajiri seva ya "nje" kwa ajili ya kushughulikia mahitaji yake yote ya IT na kuhifadhi data, inayojulikana kama "wingu". Mojawapo ya hasara kuu za kompyuta ya mtandaoni ni masuala ya usalama na faragha na uwezekano wa kushambuliwa na wavamizi. Pia kuna masuala mengine kama vile gharama kubwa zinazohusika, udhibiti mdogo wa shirika kuu na utegemezi wa jukwaa. Kompyuta ya wingu bado inaonekana kuwa mbadala nzuri kwa uhifadhi wa muda mrefu. Hata hivyo, inaonekana kama taarifa za kidijitali zinazotolewa duniani kote bila shaka zinashinda uwezo wetu wa kuzihifadhi na hata suluhu thabiti zaidi zinahitajika ili kukidhi mafuriko haya ya data huku tukitoa uwezo wa kuzingatia mahitaji ya hifadhi ya siku zijazo pia.
Je, DNA inaweza kusaidia katika kuhifadhi kompyuta?
Utawala DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) is being considered as an exciting alternative medium for digital data storage. DNA is the self-replicating material present in nearly all living organisms and is what constitutes our genetic information. An artificial or synthetic DNA is a durable material which can be made using commercially available oligonucleotide synthesis machines. The primary benefit of DNA is its longevity as a DNA lasts 1000 times longer than silicon (silicon-chip – the material used for building kompyuta) Kwa kushangaza, milimita moja tu ya ujazo DNA can hold a quintillion of bytes of data! DNA is also an ultracompact material which never degrades and can be stored in a cool, dry place for hundreds of centuries. The idea of using DNA for storage has been around for a long time way back to 1994. The main reason is the similar fashion in which information is being stored in a computer and in our DNA – since both store the blueprints of information. A computer stores all data as 0s and 1s and DNA stores all data of a living organism using the four bases – thymine (T), guanine (G), adenine (A) and cytosine (C). Therefore, DNA could be called a standard storage device, just like a computer, if these bases can be represented as 0s (bases A and C) and 1s (bases T and G). DNA is tough and long-lasting, the simplest reflection being that our genetic code – the blueprint of all our information stored in DNA – is efficiently transmitted from one generation to next in a repeated manner. All software and hardware giants are keen on using synthetic DNA for storing vast amounts to achieve their goal of solving long-term archival of data. The idea is to first convert the computer code 0s and 1s into the DNA code (A, C, T, G), the converted DNA code is then used to produce synthetic strands of DNA which can then be put into cold storage. Whenever required, DNA strands can be removed from cold storage and their information decoded using DNA sequencing machine and DNA sequence is finally translated back to binary computer format of 1s and 0s to be read on the computer.
Imeonyeshwa1 that just a few grams of DNA can store quintillion byte of data and keep it intact for up to 2000 years. However, this simple understanding has faced some challenges. Firstly, it is quite expensive and also painfully slow to write data to DNA i.e. the actual conversion of 0s and 1s to the DNA bases (A, T, C, G). Secondly, once the data is “written” onto the DNA, it is challenging to find and retrieve files and requires a technique called DNA sequencing – process of determining the precise order of bases within a DNA molecule -after which the data is decoded back to 0s and 1s.
utafiti wa hivi karibuni2 na wanasayansi kutoka Utafiti wa Microsoft na Chuo Kikuu cha Washington wamepata "upatikanaji wa nasibu" kwenye hifadhi ya DNA. Kipengele cha "ufikiaji wa nasibu" ni muhimu sana kwa sababu ina maana kwamba taarifa inaweza kuhamishiwa au kutoka mahali (kwa ujumla kumbukumbu) ambayo kila eneo, bila kujali ni wapi katika mlolongo na inaweza kupatikana moja kwa moja. Kwa kutumia mbinu hii ya ufikiaji nasibu, faili zinaweza kupatikana kutoka kwa hifadhi ya DNA kwa njia ya kuchagua ikilinganishwa na awali, wakati urejeshaji kama huo ulihitaji hitaji la kupanga na kusimbua mkusanyiko mzima wa data ya DNA ili kupata na kutoa faili chache ambazo mtu alitaka. Umuhimu wa "ufikiaji wa nasibu" huinuliwa zaidi wakati kiasi cha data kinaongezeka na kuwa kikubwa kwani inapunguza kiwango cha ufuataji kinachohitajika kufanywa. Ni kwa mara ya kwanza ufikiaji wa nasibu umeonyeshwa kwa kiwango kikubwa kama hicho. Watafiti pia wameunda algoriti ya kusimbua na kurejesha data kwa ufanisi zaidi na uvumilivu zaidi kwa makosa ya data na kufanya utaratibu wa upangaji pia haraka. Zaidi ya oligonucleotidi za syntetisk za DNA milioni 13 zilisimbwa katika utafiti huu ambayo ilikuwa data ya ukubwa wa 200MB iliyojumuisha faili 35 (zilizo na video, sauti, picha na maandishi) zenye ukubwa kutoka 29KB hadi 44MB. Faili hizi zilirejeshwa moja moja bila hitilafu. Pia, waandishi wamebuni algoriti mpya ambazo ni imara zaidi na zinazostahimili makosa katika kuandika na kusoma mlolongo wa DNA. Utafiti huu ulichapishwa katika Hali ya Bioteknolojia katika maendeleo makubwa yanayoonyesha mfumo unaowezekana, wa kiwango kikubwa wa kuhifadhi na kurejesha DNA.
DNA storage system looks very appealing because it is having high data density, high stability and is easy to store but it obviously has many challenges before it can be universally adopted. Few factors are time and labour-intensive decoding of the DNA (the sequencing) and also synthesis of DNA. The technique requires more accuracy and broader coverage. Even though advances have been made in this area the exact format in which data will be stored in the long-term as DNA is still evolving. Microsoft has vowed to improve production of synthetic DNA and address the challenges to design a fully operational DNA mfumo wa kuhifadhi ifikapo 2020.
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Chanzo (s)
1. Erlich Y na Zielinski D 2017. Chemchemi ya DNA inawezesha usanifu wa kuhifadhi imara na wa ufanisi. Sayansi. 355 (6328). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaj2038
2. Organick L et al. 2018. Ufikiaji wa nasibu katika hifadhi kubwa ya data ya DNA. Bayoteknolojia ya Asili. 36. https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.4079
