Which step directly follows DNA synthesis in the workflow?

• A. Sequencing-based retrieval.
• B. Decoding with error correction.
• C. Storage.
• D. Data encoding with error correction.

Answer: (C)

After DNA synthesis, the immediate step is to store the synthesized DNA. The synthesis step creates the physical DNA strands that encode the data, but they’re just molecules until they’re kept in a stable environment. Storing them preserves their integrity so they can be retrieved later for reading. Reading the data happens later via sequencing, and decoding with error correction is applied after sequencing to reconstruct the original data. The encoding with error correction is done before synthesis to design robust sequences. So storage directly follows synthesis.