Scientists Discover Method That Turns Bacteria Into Living Hard Drive

Bacteria colonies, when fed by a series of human-written data can transform tiny cells into living hard drives, based on a new study. Harvard scientists led by Jeff Nivala and Seth Shipman have discovered an interesting way to write some piece of information into the genetic code of growing bacterial cells.

Genotyping the bacteria could easily read the data from these living memory sticks, according to Shipman. The geneticist said that this method, which was explained in the journal Science, can upload up to 100 bytes of data.

While the scientists have proven the possibility of synthetically manufacturing DNA to write into it anything they want, the latest experiment was dedicated to determine the likelihood of using nature and its own method to directly write into the genome of a bacterial cell and be used in the next generation. Prior to this, the scientists were able to upload permanently most information into a living cell with only 11 bits, which is 11 zeros and ones of binary data - less information than the required number for the computer to code two alphabetic letters. The new method, however, has extended the capacity up to 100 bytes, according to Genetic Literacy Project.

To protect certain bacteria from viral infection, the scientists used an immune response named CRISPR or Cas system. When the bacteria have invaded the viruses, they can now get a segment of the virus' DNA and place it in a specific portion of the bacteria's genome. This will enable the bacteria to remember the specific virus if they ever attempt to invade again, as well as allow the genetic memory to be transferred into the progeny of the bacteria, including the viral immunity to the next generations.

The bacteria research team discovered that by introducing a segment of genetic data that resembles the viral DNA to a bacterial colony through CRISPR, the bacteria would devour it and include it in their genetic code. Also, the scientists spread the loose segments of DNA into the E.coli bacterial colony that had the CRISPR. The DNA segments that were used were only arbitrary series of data that were book-ended with loads of virus data, Catch News reported.