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closeLong-term preservation in silica-gel
Posted by Craseonycteris on 24 Mar 2015 at 10:12 GMT
I'm very glad to see this comparison published as many people are sceptical about samples stored in silica-gel. People might still wonder if the DNA dried in silica gel would be well preserved for many years (only less than 1 year tested in the current paper as far as I can tell).
I nearly exclusively store samples (wing pucnhes) in silica-gel for more than 10 years and I have extracted a large number (>1,000) of these samples stored for many years (some for 10 years) and although I did not run precise DNA quantification as in the present paper, I can add that the DNA seems to be very well preserved for at least 10 years (I did not test for longer). Here are a few references in which silica-gel preserved wing punches have been used:
Puechmaille SJ, Ar Gouilh M, Piyapan P, Yokubol M, Khin Mie Mie, Bates PJJ, Satasook C, Tin Nwe, Si Si Hla Bu, Mackie IJ, Petit EJ, Teeling EC (2011) The evolution of sensory divergence in the context of limited gene flow in the bumblebee bat. Nature Communications, 2, 573. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1582
Puechmaille SJ, Borissov I, Zsebok S, Allegrini B, Hizem MW, Kuenzel S, Schuchmann M, Teeling EC, Siemers BM (2014) Female mate choice can drive the evolution of high frequency echolocation in bats: A case study with Rhinolophus mehelyi. PLOS ONE, 9, e103452. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0103452