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Hiding messages in DNA microdots

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A Correction to this article was published on 16 December 1999

Abstract

The microdot is a means of concealing messages (steganography)1 that was developed by Professor Zapp and used by German spies in the Second World War to transmit secret information2. A microdot (“the enemy's masterpiece of espionage”2) was a greatly reduced photograph of a typewritten page that was pasted over a full stop in an innocuous letter2. We have taken the microdot a step further and developed a DNA-based, doubly steganographic technique for sending secret messages. A DNA-encoded message is first camouflaged within the enormous complexity of human genomic DNA and then further concealed by confining this sample to a microdot.

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Figure 1: Genomic steganography.

References

  1. Kahn, D. The Codebreakers (Scribner, New York, 1996).

  2. Hoover, J. E. Reader's Digest 48, 1–6 (April 1946).

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  3. Clayton, P. T. et al. Arch. Dis. Child 79, 109–115 (1998).

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Author notes

  1. Viviana Risca

    Present address: Paul D. Schreiber High School, Port Washington, New York, 11050, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, 10029, New York, USA

    Catherine Taylor Clelland & Carter Bancroft

Authors
  1. Catherine Taylor Clelland
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  2. Viviana Risca
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  3. Carter Bancroft
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Clelland, C., Risca, V. & Bancroft, C. Hiding messages in DNA microdots. Nature 399, 533–534 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/21092

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