Green Technologies for Room Temperature Nucleic Acid Storage

Maintaining the long-term integrity of nucleic acids in the laboratory has traditionally required the use of freezers. However, novel nucleic acid stabilization technologies may allow for the storage of DNA and RNA at room temperature in a cost-effective, environmentally friendly manner. In this study, we evaluated two novel products for room temperature DNA storage: Biomatrica's DNA SampleMatrix technology and GenVault's GenTegra DNA technology. We compared the integrity and quality of DNA stored using these products against DNA stored in a -20° C freezer by performing downstream testing with short range PCR, long range PCR, DNA sequencing, and SNP microarrays. In addition, we tested Biomatrica's RNAstable product for its ability to preserve RNA at room temperature for use in a quantitative reverse transcription PCR assay.