News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Microsoft, UW demonstrate first fully automated DNA data storage. Parent comment

Re:Microsoft, UW demonstrate first fully automated DNA data ... by hn_throwaway_99 on Saturday March 23, 2019 @03:01PM (#19471812)
No, that is not correct. While each base is half of a base pair, each pair is NOT reversible. At each position along one strand you have 4 options, so each base encodes 2 bits. Even though A always pairs with T and G with C, which strand each base is on matters, so in other words if you have pair "A-T" followed by "G-C" that is very different from "T-A" followed by "C-G".
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft, UW demonstrate first fully automated DNA data ... by gpm on Saturday March 23, 2019 @03:19PM (#19471900)
You have a problem with your counting. Each location can be in one of four possible states:

T-A

A-T

G-C

C-G

That location, using 2 base's, encodes 4 possible values, i.e. 2 bits. I.e. 1 bit per base.

[ Parent | on HN ]