Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have transformed the genome of E. coli into long-term memory storage devices. They imagine that this stable, destructible, easily retrievable memory will suit a range of applications, such as sensors for environmental and medical monitoring. "You can store long-term information," said Timothy Lu, associate professor of electrical engineering, computer science and bioengineering at MIT. "You can imagine that bacteria or environmental bacteria living in your intestines have such a system." Engineers have transformed the genome of E. coli into long-term memory storage devices The study, published in the November 13 issue of the journal Science, overcomes several limitations of the existing methods for the storage of memories in the body of bacterial genes, says senior researcher Lu Lu. These methods require a large number of gene regulatory elements, thus limiting the amount of information that can be stored. Previous research was also limited to digital memory, which meant that they could only store all-or-nothing memories. Lu and his postgraduate and article chief author Fahim Farzadfard plan to create a system for storing analog memory to reveal the degree or duration of exposure. To achieve this goal, they designed a "genetic recorder" that allows researchers to write new information on any bacterial DNA sequence. Stable memory To encode E. coli and store memory, MIT researchers modified the cell and generated a recombinase that can insert DNA or a single-stranded DNA of a specific sequence into the target. However, this DNA can only be produced when there is a predetermined molecule or other type of input signal, such as light. After the DNA is generated, the recombinase inserts this DNA into the preprogrammed position of the cell genome. "We can locate any position in the genome, which is why we treat it as a recorder because you can control where the signal is written," Lu Guanda said. Once this process records an exposure, these memories will be stored permanently in the flora and passed on from generation to generation. There are several different ways to retrieve the stored information. If DNA is inserted into a non-functional region of the genome, sequencing the genome will reveal whether this memory is stored in a specific cell. Alternatively, researchers can locate these sequences to change genes. For example, in this study, the new DNA sequence opened an antibiotic resistance gene, allowing researchers to determine how many cells acquired this memory sequence by adding antibiotics to cells and observing the number of cell survival. By measuring the proportion of cells in the population that have new DNA sequences, researchers can determine the degree of exposure and duration. In this study, the researchers used this system to examine light, a lactose metabolite called IPTG and an antibiotic derivative aTc. In addition, it can also address signals generated by many other molecules and even cells, Lu explained. This information can also be eliminated by stimulating cells and integrating different DNA fragments at the same position. However, the current process is not efficient, but researchers are trying to improve it. "This research is really exciting because it combines many useful features in a single system: Persistence, simulabilities, distributed gene storage and a range of reading options," said Associate Professor, University of California, San Diego, Shaw. Shawn Douglas said that he did not participate in the study. "This study by Farzafad and Lu did not use a single cell as a digital storage device. Instead, it used the entire cell population as a simulated 'hard disk', which greatly increased the amount of information that can be stored and retrieved. ." Bacteria sensor Environmental applications for this type of sensor include monitoring the ocean's carbon dioxide levels, acidity, or pollutants. In addition, it is possible to potentially use bacteria that live in the digestive tract of humans to detect one's dietary intake, such as the amount of sugar or fat consumed, or to detect the inflammation caused by irritable bowel syndrome. These genetically modified bacteria can also be used as biological computers, said Lu Guanda, who are particularly suitable for applications that require a lot of parallel processing, such as recognizing image patterns. "Because there are billions of bacteria in a test tube, now we are starting to use this flora for storage memory or calculations. Using them for highly parallel calculations may be very interesting. It may be slow but it may be relatively energy efficient," Lu said. Another possible application is that by genetically modifying living cells or human brain cells grown in petri dishes, researchers can track whether a particular disease marker is expressed or a certain neuron is active at a particular time. "If you can achieve the self-transformation of intracellular DNA into a small storage device and then associate it with something you care about, then you can write this information and retrieve it later," said Lu Guanda. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Naval Research Office, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Solar Panels,Solar Panel Mono,Solar Power Panels China Searun Solar Solution Co., Ltd. , https://www.searunsolar.com