A mirror-image protein-based information barcoding and storage technology

Ji-Shen Zheng; Jun Liang; Wei-Wei Shi; Ying Li; Hong-Gang Hu; Chang-Lin Tian; Lei Liu

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2021.03.010

A mirror-image protein-based information barcoding and storage technology

Sci Bull (Beijing). 2021 Aug 15;66(15):1542-1549. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2021.03.010. Epub 2021 Mar 13.

Authors

Ji-Shen Zheng¹, Jun Liang², Wei-Wei Shi³, Ying Li², Hong-Gang Hu⁴, Chang-Lin Tian², Lei Liu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Tsinghua-Peking Joint Center for Life Sciences, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Bioorganic Phosphorus Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China.
² Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China.
³ Tsinghua-Peking Joint Center for Life Sciences, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Bioorganic Phosphorus Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
⁴ Institute of Translational Medicine, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
⁵ Tsinghua-Peking Joint Center for Life Sciences, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Bioorganic Phosphorus Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. Electronic address: lliu@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn.

PMID: 36654283
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2021.03.010

Abstract

A mirror-image protein-based information barcoding and storage technology wherein D-amino acids are used to encode information into mirror-image proteins that are chemically synthesized is described. These mirror-image proteins were then fused into various materials from which information-encoded objects were produced. Subsequently, the mirror-image proteins were extracted from the objects using biotin-streptavidin resin-mediated specific enrichment and cleaved using an Ni(II)-mediated selective peptide cleavage. Protein sequencing was accomplished using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and then transcoded into the recorded information. We demonstrated the use of this technology to encode Chinese words into mirror-image proteins, which were then fused onto a poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) film and retrieved and decoded by LC-MS/MS sequencing. Compared to information barcoding and storage technologies using natural biopolymers, the mirror-image biopolymers used in our technology may be more stable and durable.

Keywords: Chemical protein synthesis; Information barcoding and storage; Mirror-image proteins; Protein sequencing; Protein-of-things.

MeSH terms

Amino Acid Sequence
Chromatography, Liquid
Peptides
Proteins* / chemistry
Tandem Mass Spectrometry* / methods

Substances

Proteins
Peptides