Fig. 1: Molecular technologies unlock dynamic operations for DNA storage.

a The generic framework for DNA-based storage systems includes encoding of digital information to nucleotide sequences, DNA synthesis and storage, DNA sequencing, and decoding the desired information. b Schematic of challenges faced by PCR-based file access. c Schematic of DORIS (Dynamic Operations and Reusable Information Storage). ss-dsDNA strands enable repeatable information access through non-PCR-based magnetic separation, in vitro transcription, reverse transcription, and the return of separated files to the database. Additionally, the overhangs of ss-dsDNAs enable in-storage file operations including lock, unlock, rename, and delete.