Parallel DNA Synthesis to Produce Multi-Usage Two-Dimensional Barcodes

Data storage on DNA has emerged as a molecular approach to safeguarding digital information. Microarrays are an excellent source of complex DNA sequence libraries and are playing a central role in the development of this technology. However, the amount of DNA recovered from microarrays is often too small, and a PCR amplification step is usually required. Primer information can be conveyed alongside the DNA library itself in the form of readable barcodes made of DNA on the array surface. Here, we present a synthetic method to pattern QR and data matrix barcodes using DNA photolithography, phosphoramidite chemistry and fluorescent labeling. Patterning and DNA library synthesis occur simultaneously and on the same surface. We manipulate the chemical composition of the barcodes to make them indelible, erasable or hidden, and a simple chemical treatment under basic conditions can reveal or degrade the pattern. In doing so, information crucial to retrieval and amplification can be made available by the user at the appropriate stage. The code and its data contained within are intimately linked to the library as they are synthesized simultaneously and on the same surface. This process is, in principle, applicable to any in situ microarray synthesis method, for instance, inkjet or electrochemical DNA synthesis.