NextFin news, Scientists announced on this Friday, September 5, 2025, the discovery of a molecular messaging system that operates in parallel with DNA, allowing for the parallel and selective writing of epigenetic information onto DNA molecules. This research was conducted by a team of molecular biologists and bioengineers and published in the journal Nature.
The system uses a framework based on DNA self-assembly guided enzymatic methylation to encode arbitrary epigenetic bits (epi-bits) onto DNA templates. Unlike traditional DNA data storage methods that rely on de novo synthesis of nucleotide sequences, this approach employs a premade set of DNA movable types and the methyltransferase enzyme DNMT1 to selectively methylate cytosine bases in DNA, effectively 'printing' information in a parallel and programmable manner.
The process begins with a universal single-stranded DNA carrier and a library of complementary short DNA bricks. These bricks assemble onto the carrier to typeset the desired epigenetic information. DNMT1 then catalyzes the methylation of specific cytosines, encoding the data as stable epigenetic marks. The encoded information can be retrieved through high-throughput nanopore sequencing, enabling efficient reading of the stored data.
This system mimics the natural epigenomic inheritance mechanism found in human cells, where stable chemical modifications overlay the invariant DNA sequence to regulate gene expression. By harnessing this biological principle, the researchers developed a synthesis-free DNA data storage method that potentially reduces cost and time compared to chemical DNA synthesis.
The study highlights that current DNA data storage technologies face limitations in writing speed and cost due to their serial synthesis processes. The new enzymatic printing strategy overcomes these challenges by enabling parallel data writing with high specificity and programmability.
The research team demonstrated the system's capability by selectively transferring single epigenetic bits in vitro, validating the precision and stability of the methylation marks. This advancement opens avenues for scalable, cost-effective, and durable molecular data storage solutions.
The findings were reported by Nature on this Friday, September 5, 2025, and represent a significant step forward in molecular biology and biotechnology, with implications for data storage, synthetic biology, and molecular computing.
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