What is the best way of preserving bulk soil samples for later DNA and RNA extraction for quantitative comparison of abundance across samples?
I am working on a large scale project that requires collection of field samples for multiple analyses (DNA, RNA, enzyme assays, etc.). Freezing the samples at -80 degrees is the cheapest I can afford, but I am worried that this may affect my DNA and RNA microbial community analyses (especially because of the freeze and thawing during handling prior to extraction). Any thoughts?
In my opinion freezing at -80 is the only way to preserve your samples for later analysis. It is very important that the soil samples are frozen as soon as possible after collection as this will preserve the RNA. I am not sure what extraction method you will use will it is vital to avoid freeze-thawing of samples- maybe you can grind the soil up in liquid nitrogen using a pestle and mortar.
Freezing at -80 C should be fine. Freeze-thaw won't harm DNA/RNA nor microorganisms, unless it is excessive. We always store our bacteria and DNA/ RNA stocks at -80 C. One thing you may consider is to stock your samples in several aliquots of ~100 g, so you thaw one aliquot at each analysis time.
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