WO2015041626A1 - Information storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

This utility model relates to information technologies and can be used in data storage systems. The proposed storage medium relates to storage media on which data can be repeatedly written and rewritten. The information storage medium is in the form of a liquid crystal in a buffer solution consisting of polypeptides of plant origin with small sizes and a molecular mass in the range of from 1 to 150 kDa, while the primary structure comprises from 1 to 10 amino acids.

Description

 INFORMATION MEDIA

The utility model belongs to information technology and can be used in data storage systems. The proposed medium relates to reusable and rewritable media.

To record information presented in digital form, optical media (in particular, compact discs) are widely used, in which information is recorded on a photosensitive layer deposited on a substrate with tracking tracks. Service information is also recorded in the tracking track (about the type of medium, manufacturer, as well as synchronization marks). Depending on the physicochemical characteristics of the photosensitive layer, optical media with one-time recording (such as CD-R, DVD-R, BD-R) are created, into which recording is carried out by creating micro-holes (pits), or media with reusable recording (type CD -RW, DVD-RW, BD-RE), in which recording is carried out due to the reverse phase transition between the amorphous and polycrystalline phases in semiconductor materials.

It is known that the longest data storage period is provided by optical media onto which information is recorded during the manufacture of the media (ROM media). Information is recorded in the form of pits of different lengths along the information tracks (most often spiral) and cannot be changed.

Known optical media (CD), consisting of a polycarbonate lining, on which during the manufacturing process put tracking tracks with service information, a photosensitive layer and protective layers [1]. Such media are widely used to record information in digital form, however, they do not provide long-term data storage. This is primarily due to the physicochemical characteristics of the linings made of polycarbonate. In the process of long-term preservation, an uncontrolled change in the size and shape of the formed microrelief structures (tracks, pits, prints) occurs. Repeated reproductions of recorded information due to local temperature increase also lead to deformations of microrelief structures created on the surface of the carrier, using which the information presented on the carriers is encoded.

These changes become especially significant with a decrease in the geometric dimensions of pits and tracks (on BD media).

Recently, the attention of researchers in the field of recording and storage of information has been attracted by biological carriers, for example, a biological carrier of information, which is used as DNA fhttp: // 2010. igem. org / Team: Hong Kong-CUNK. Information has already been published regarding several successful attempts to use experimental technologies for recording / reading information in DNA. The DNA molecule stores information in the quadruple number system, according to the number of nucleotides (0 - A, 1 - T, 2 - C, 3 - G). This is a very compact container with a recording density a thousand times greater than that of today's known carriers. It is clear that the use of such media requires the creation of new methods and technologies for recording, reading, encoding, decoding information, solving problems with repeatability of a sequence of bits of information, excessive duplication, error correction, etc. However, already the first attempts give very optimistic results, in particular, preliminary calculations of information density give indicators of 2.2 petabytes per 1 gram of biological material, the readability is 100%.

The use of DNA as a storage medium is based on coding technology that allows you to convert kilobytes of information into a genetic code and vice versa. If information is stored on a digital medium in the form of a sequence of zeros and ones, then DNA is recorded using a sequence of nucleotides.

We also note the advantages of DNA as an information carrier over other methods of storing information:

1. Tight packaging (1 g of DNA is equivalent to approximately 1 million CDs);

2. Long-term storage of information (it is clear that it all depends on the conditions); 3. Reliability (it can be noted that DNA contains all the events from the inception of life on Earth to the present day).

The purpose of the claimed utility model is to develop a storage medium that can accommodate a large amount of data, save this data for an almost unlimited period, with the ability to replenish information, quickly search and read information.

The inventors found such a storage medium, the capabilities of which are several orders of magnitude greater than the amount of information that can be stored in DNA in the amount of recorded information. Such a carrier are plant polypeptides. It was found that polypeptides of small sizes, the molecular mass of which is in the range from 1 to 150 kDa, and the primary structure contains from 1 to 10 amino acids, when certain conditions and organizations are created, can create a data bank in which you can write and save very large volumes of information. These volumes of data can be compared with the volumes of data contained in tens of billions of media (CD-R, DVD-R, BD-R).

In order to be able to practically use the above media, it was necessary to give it a suitable shape and structure.

Unexpectedly, the inventors found that if the polypeptides of plant origin are given the form of a liquid crystal in an aqueous buffer solution, then this form allows: firstly, to maintain a stable structure, external size, secondly, to preserve the natural activity of the polypeptides, thirdly, it does not limit the ability to exchange information with such a medium, i.e., the ability to write and read information, fourthly, to save the above capabilities for an almost unlimited time.

Thus, the goal is achieved by the fact that as a medium for long-term preservation of information, a liquid crystal is used from plant polypeptides of small sizes, the molecular weight of which is in the range from 1 to 150 kDa, and the primary structure contains from 1 to 10 amino acids. The procedure for creating liquid crystals from various substances is known to those of ordinary skill in the art. We emphasize that the procedure for giving the polypeptides a mesomorphic form, i.e. type of liquid crystal includes a sequence of technological operations for which, in addition to direct operations, additional indicators are also important: temperature conditions, the duration of each of the individual operations, sterility, etc.

Since the technology for producing a liquid crystal is not the object of the claimed utility model, the inventors provide only a general scheme of this transformation.

In general, the procedure for creating a liquid crystal from plant polypeptides includes the following operations:

 • extraction from plant materials (the extracting solution contains, for example, 0.9% NaCl in 0.004 M potassium phosphate buffer);

 • obtaining a supernatant after salting out in a 100% saline solution (for example, ammonium sulfate);

 • obtaining a supernatant after cleaning the solution from salts by filtration through a paper filter (Miracloth, quick filtration material for gelatinous grindates, 18-50, Calbiochem, USA), followed by filtration through a cellulose filter;

 • obtaining a protein solution with subsequent extraction and filtration, first through a cellulose filter, and then through a membrane filter with pores of 0.4 μm (Millipore, Type GS 0.4);

 • sterilization by membrane filtration on a 0.22 μm membrane filter (Millipore, Type GS, 0.22) and subsequent gel filtration chromatography using Toyopearl HW-55 (TSK-GEL, Toyopearl HW-55 Fine Toyo Soda MFG, Co , LTD) as a result of which we obtain a standardized buffer solution with a pH level from OD to 7.4%;

 • sterilization by membrane filtration on a 0.22 μm membrane filter (Millipore, Type GS, 0.22) followed by lyophilization;

• purity assessment and subsequent standardization using chromatographic fractionation on Delta PAK CI 8-waters; • mechanical compression under the condition of the highest level of sterility;

 • packaging in a sterile transparent container.

The composition was determined using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) followed by tandem mass mass spectrometry using an LTQ FT ICR mass spectrometer (Hybrid-2D-Linear Quadrupole Ion Trap, Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometer), which allowed the identification of peptides that did not assigned to known polypeptides and proteins. The molecular weight of such peptides is generally in the range of 1 to 15 kDa. The inventors admit that it is this part of the peptides that can accommodate huge amounts of information, since they are the most “clean” or “empty”, i.e. most suitable for recording information.

Additional studies showed that the obtained liquid crystal from polypeptides can be attributed to the group of smectic liquid crystals, which are the most crystalline among other liquid crystals. Somatic crystals are characterized by two-dimensional ordering. Molecules are placed so that their axes are parallel. Moreover, they “understand” the “equal” command and are placed in slender rows packed on smectic planes, and ranks on nematic planes. The presence of long-term memory is characteristic of smectic liquid crystals.

A prerequisite for the use of polypeptides as an information carrier was that the polypeptides consist of a sequence of amino acids that can be used as “empty” cells for recording, storing and reading information. Since twenty amino acids are currently known, this makes it possible to use a twenty base number system. Such a number of discharges makes it possible not only to record information converted from a binary (digital) system into an amino acid sequence, but also to use some amino acids as auxiliary ones, which, in turn, saves space when recording repetitions of amino acid sequences.

The inventors have proposed the use of a hexadecimal number system for recording information. It is clear that, in general, the base of the number system may to be different, but in this particular case (variant) of use, the inventors proceeded from the fact that the first (or any) sixteen amino acids can be used as informational, and the last (or any) four amino acids (T, V, W, Y) can be used as official . This number system is also used by inventors to write and read large amounts of information. The proposed number system does not limit the ability of inventors to use number systems for other reasons.

Table 1.

 Using the above number system (Table 1), we transform the sentence

"It is a new information carrier" in the amino acid sequence. For the initial presentation, the ASCII coding system is selected, however, in general, another system can be selected, for example, HTML code, etc.

It is a new information carrier ->

[ASCII code]: 73 1 16 32 105 1 15 32 97 32 software 101 1 19 32 105 software 102 1 1 1 1 1 14 109 97 116 105 1 1 1 1 10 32 99 97 1 14 1 14 105 101 1 14 - » [16-by Number system]: 49 74 20 69 73 20 61 20 6Е 65 77 20 69 6Е 66 6F 72 6D

61 74 69 6F 6E 20 63 61 72 72 69 65 72 ->

[Amino acid doublet]: FL IF DA HL IE DA NS DA HR HG II DA HL HR HH HS ID HQ HC IE HL HS HR DA HE HA ID ID HL HG ID

 Thus, the sentence "It is a new information carrier" in the recording of the sequence of amino acid pairs:

"FLIFDAHLIEDAHCDAHRHGIIDAHLHRHHHSIDHQHCIEHLHSHRDAHEHAI DIDHLHGID."

To record a large amount of information, a new code is used, the essence of which is to split into a large number of overlapping small fragments and their indexing (addressing), indicating the reading sequence. This code is designed to prevent the repetition of characters. The developed code is one of the possible encoding options, is given only to demonstrate the benefits of coding using an amino acid sequence, and does not limit the rights of inventors to use other coding approaches.

To record information, the following official duplicates of amino acids are proposed: TT - the beginning of the information; YY - end of information; VT is the next title element; TV - end of title; TY - the beginning of the title element; YT is the end of the header element; WT - start of duplication; WY - end of duplication; WW - the number of copies of duplication.

All information was divided into fragments of amino acid sequences, each of which contained 128 doublets of amino acids. Each fragment, except for the basic information, had its own address (16 doublets of amino acids), indicating the place of this piece of information among others, as well as the address of the next piece of information (16 doublets of amino acids) and a checksum (8 doublets of amino acids).

Before preparing for recording information on the medium, many different studies were carried out to determine the internal structure of the medium, i.e. in order to find the appropriate sequence of recording information. Studies have shown that due to intramolecular interactions, proteins create a certain spatial structure, the so-called “protein conformation”, and it is impossible to obtain two identical carriers whose protein conformations coincide.

Unexpectedly experimentally, the inventors found that it is not necessary to determine and remember the initial conformation of carrier proteins, i.e. their three-dimensional spatial, and it is enough to remember the linear sequence of amino acids when recording information. Recording information causes the addition of new chains to the “active” amino acid sequence, which leads to a change in the spatial structure of carrier proteins. Thus, after recording information in the carrier, “new linear amino acid sequences” are created, the conformations of which differ from the initial ones. Also, a significant difference between the obtained amino acid sequences from the initial ones is that the newly created sequences contain the information recorded in them.

For the experimental verification of the carrier, the inventors chose the medications Mukaltin (100% consists of components of plant origin), Acyclovir (has a purely chemical origin) and Glucofage (contains components of both natural and artificial origin).

For each of these drugs received a frequency-resonance characteristic, i.e. radiation characteristic of each drug. After converting the obtained characteristics into a digital form, the sizes of the obtained sequences were approximately 700 MB for Mukaltin and Glucofage, respectively, and about 4 TB for Acyclovir.

The obtained information was used as experimental to verify the recording on the claimed medium and the correct reading of information from it.

It’s clear that it’s not enough to have a potential information carrier, since technologies, devices that solve recording problems, are also important. reading information from media, recording density, recording time, reading time, etc.

Modern technologies increasingly include devices and tools using laser and fiber optic technologies. The combination of these technologies and other well-known technologies for recording / reading information in the near future will lead to the emergence of new devices with qualitatively new super-powerful characteristics: write and read speed, recording density of information, the duration of information storage, etc.

The experimental device used by the inventors to write / read information to the claimed medium is not the object of this utility model, therefore, this description describes only the general steps of the process of writing / reading information.

The fiber optic system includes collecting and scattering lenses, a red laser and optics for writing / reading. At the same time, a collecting lens is used to record data, and a diffusing lens is used to read data. The technology of recording / reading is based on the use of "biological waves", which allows the use of ultrahigh speeds, both for recording and for reading information. It is possible to use both individual heads for recording and reading information, or a unique head with integrated optics combining the functions of writing and reading, which accurately directs the laser beam to the desired section of the information carrier.

After recording the information, no external changes on the medium were observed. This check was carried out in order to be sure that internal changes in the spatial structure occurred only inside the carrier.

When reading information, the analysis of the obtained sequences was carried out and their stitching into one at the “address”. The use of official duplicates of amino acids in combination with the developed code allowed not only to write and read information, but also to repeatedly verify the correctness of writing / reading every bit of information. A thorough check, although it took a long time, did not reveal any errors.

Already the first successful attempts yielded very optimistic results, in particular, preliminary calculations of information density yielded indicators of 10.5-32.5 petabytes per 1 milligram of biological material, the readability is 100%.

The storage medium according to the claimed utility model can be used in data storage and processing systems, and also, subject to the development of specialized equipment, become the basis for new generation high-speed computing systems and find its place in new information technologies.

Claims

CLAIM 1. The storage medium in the form of a liquid crystal in a buffer solution of plant-derived polypeptides of small sizes, the molecular weight of which is in the range from 1 to 150 kDa, and the primary structure contains from 1 to 10 amino acids. 2. The storage medium according to claim 1, characterized in that the molecular weight of the polypeptides of plant origin is in the range from 1 to 15 kDa. 3. The storage medium according to p. 1 or p. 2, characterized in that the pH level of the buffer solution is in the range from 0.1 to 7.4%.