What can I use to preserve insects? will 70% work? or I can use 90%. The same goes with plants, what can I use to maintain them before I conduct molecular analysis?
The specimens must be preserved for >5 years if possible and the chemical used must not degrade the DNA. Kindly assist me
You could try drying your specimens. DNA is easy to extract from dry specimens and it is easy to store them (just find a dark dry place, even a cupboard works well). There have been successful DNA extractions of dry herbarium samples that are much older than 5 years
The acidic conditions of ethanol will degrade the DNA over time. It is best to do a DNA extraction as early as possible and then store the purified DNA in a freezer.
If you have enough samples you can use more than one preservation method (just in case). You could save some as extracted DNA, some as whole samples in the freezer, and some dried. If you do freeze some, I would suggest freezing duplicate samples in two different freezers. 5 years is a long time to have no accidental thaw of frozen samples.
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