Preservation of DNA

Abstract

The preservation of DNA is of wide interest to scientists in disparate fields from biorepository management to pharmaceutical sciences. Although the term “preservation” is used by all these fields and refers to the maintenance of chemical and physical integrity of the DNA molecule, it should not be surprising that the perspectives of scientists from these distinct fields differ significantly. Most notably, the time frame for stability of a pharmaceutical product is approximately 2 years, whereas meaningful stability for an evolutionary biologist is measured in the hundreds of millions of years. Such divergent viewpoints not only have a significant effect on the time span of preservation, but also on what criteria are used to assess “stability.” This review discusses the literature addressing the maintenance of DNA integrity from the perspective of developing methods that offer improved preservation. Specifically, studies on the stability of DNA in solution, frozen, and dried are discussed. The findings fr...