As part of a Covid project we are sampling urban rodents and performing RNA extractions and serology work. We have too many samples to store at -80 and have opted to perform extractions the same day as dissection to limit an extra freeze-thaw cycle. The samples are currently stored as whole animals at -20. Does anyone know how long viral RNA would be stable at those temperatures? We know these conditions are not ideal, but were working under the assumption that if the cells and viral envelopes are intact then some of the RNA should be relatively stable for a number of months.
Did you use something like RNALater?
Companies state that their RNALAter should allow you to have samples at -20 with no problem, but it might be trickier if you didn't put them in some solutions.
Thanks for the reply Mattia, as the animals are currently un-dissected and are in a high number that volume of RNALater wasn't logistically feasible. The sample input for extractions will be fairly large and the RNA will be converted and fragmented to around 150bp for sequencing. Once we begin extractions we will be looking for ribosomal bands to confirm RNA integrity but in the mean time I'm just hoping it is stable within the animal tissue
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Molecular Biology
- Biomolecules
- Nucleic Acids
- RNA