State of the Art on DNA Storage Technologies and Their Performance Evaluation

This chapter presents an overview of DNA storage systems designed for data preservation. This objective relies primarily on maintaining DNA integrity. This is no small feat: despite its reputation for stability, DNA can be affected by many factors, such as base loss caused by the bonding of H+ to a nitrogen atom in the base, or oxidation by ozone or reactive oxygen species, leading to base loss or modification and strand fragmentation. To mitigate these effects, various preservation systems have been designed. Conventional methods, based on cold, such as freezing at low temperature, while widely used, would be prohibitive in terms of cost and space for large-scale data archives. Consequently, various alternative strategies have been proposed or developed for storage at room temperature, including inclusion in protective matrices or in micro- or nano-particles, dehydration on solid surfaces, microchips, adsorption on a porous support, and chemical or physical encapsulation, ideally under anoxic and anhydrous conditions. The selecting and evaluation of adequate technologies are based on criteria such as random access to files, DNA recovery efficiency, sequence fidelity, density and information capacity, automation potential, and resistance to environmental factors. A systematic review of existing findings highlights the strengths and limitations of each method, providing insights into their suitability for DNA data storage.