DNA has emerged as an attractive medium for archival data storage due to its durability and high information density. Scalable parallel random access to information is a desirable property of any storage system. For DNA-based storage systems, however, this still needs to be robustly established. Here we report on a thermoconfined polymerase chain reaction, which enables multiplexed, repeated random access to compartmentalized DNA files. The strategy is based on localizing biotin-functionalized oligonucleotides inside thermoresponsive, semipermeable microcapsules. At low temperatures, microcapsules are permeable to enzymes, primers and amplified products, whereas at high temperatures, membrane collapse prevents molecular crosstalk during amplification. Our data show that the platform outperforms non-compartmentalized DNA storage compared with repeated random access and reduces amplification bias tenfold during multiplex polymerase chain reaction. Using fluorescent sorting, we also demonstrate sample pooling and data retrieval by microcapsule barcoding. Therefore, the thermoresponsive microcapsule technology offers a scalable, sequence-agnostic approach for repeated random access to archival DNA files.

由于其耐用性和高信息密度，DNA 已成为一种有吸引力的档案数据存储介质。对信息的可扩展并行随机访问是任何存储系统的理想特性。然而，对于基于 DNA 的存储系统，这仍然需要牢固地建立。在此，我们报告了一种热限制聚合酶链式反应，该反应能够对分隔的 DNA 文件进行多重、重复的随机访问。该策略基于将生物素功能化寡核苷酸定位在热响应性半透性微胶囊内。在低温下，微胶囊可渗透酶、引物和扩增产物，而在高温下，膜塌陷可防止扩增过程中的分子串扰。我们的数据表明，与重复随机访问相比，该平台的性能优于非区室化 DNA 存储，并且在多重聚合酶链式反应期间将扩增偏差降低十倍。使用荧光分选，我们还演示了通过微胶囊条形码进行样本池和数据检索。因此，热敏微胶囊技术提供了一种可扩展的、与序列无关的方法，用于重复随机访问档案 DNA 文件。