Dahlhauser Samuel D, Wight Christopher D, Moor Sarah R, Scanga Randall A, Ngo Phuoc, York Jordan T, Vera Marissa S, Blake Kristin J, Riddington Ian M, Reuther James F, Anslyn Eric V
Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States.
Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, Massachusetts 01854, United States.
ACS Cent Sci. 2022 Aug 24;8(8):1125-1133. doi: 10.1021/acscentsci.2c00460. Epub 2022 Jul 20.
Molecular encoding in abiotic sequence-defined polymers (SDPs) has recently emerged as a versatile platform for information and data storage. However, the storage capacity of these sequence-defined polymers remains underwhelming compared to that of the information storing biopolymer DNA. In an effort to increase their information storage capacity, herein we describe the synthesis and simultaneous sequencing of eight sequence-defined 10-mer oligourethanes. Importantly, we demonstrate the use of different isotope labels, such as halogen tags, as a tool to deconvolute the complex sequence information found within a heterogeneous mixture of at least 96 unique molecules, with as little as four micromoles of total material. In doing so, relatively high-capacity data storage was achieved: 256 bits in this example, the most information stored in a single sample of abiotic SDPs without the use of long strands. Within the sequence information, a 256-bit cipher key was stored and retrieved. The key was used to encrypt and decrypt a plain text document containing . To validate this platform as a medium of molecular steganography and cryptography, the cipher key was hidden in the ink of a personal letter, mailed to a third party, extracted, sequenced, and deciphered successfully in the first try, thereby revealing the encrypted document.
非生物序列定义聚合物（SDPs）中的分子编码最近已成为一种用于信息和数据存储的通用平台。然而，与信息存储生物聚合物DNA相比，这些序列定义聚合物的存储容量仍然不尽人意。为了提高它们的信息存储容量，在此我们描述了八种序列定义的10聚体寡聚脲烷的合成和同步测序。重要的是，我们展示了使用不同的同位素标记，如卤素标签，作为一种工具，以解卷积在至少96个独特分子的异质混合物中发现的复杂序列信息，所需的总材料量低至四微摩尔。通过这样做，实现了相对高容量的数据存储：在此示例中为256位，这是在不使用长链的情况下，单个非生物SDP样品中存储的最多信息。在序列信息中，存储并检索了一个256位的密码密钥。该密钥用于加密和解密包含的纯文本文档。为了验证该平台作为分子隐写术和密码学媒介的有效性，密码密钥被隐藏在一封私人信件的墨水中，邮寄给第三方，首次尝试时就成功提取、测序和解密，从而揭示了加密文档。
