You can store fresh leaves from most plant species at 4°C for up to 24 hours. DNA quality or yield will not be impaired. For longer periods, if you have immediate access to -80C freezer, than this is probably best way to go.
If you don't want to/can't freeze your samples, than you have to dry them. For this, you can choose between silica gel, lyophilizers or even food dehydrators. You should desiccate your leaves quickly though - in less than 24 hours. In this way, you will prevent DNA degradation. Store these samples for long-term in the dark at room temperature making sure the conditions stay desiccating (put some silica gel in with the material).
I've no particular experience of olive leaves but for field collection of animal material in the past I've used 100 percent ethanol which dehydrates and preserved material for long term DNA collection.
I confirm...I would use absolute ethanol for long term storage of any tissue for molecular analysis
what is a long time in your case?
It depends mostly on your DNA extraction method and how good it is, some leaves can be silica gel dried or liophylised and can bee kept for years in controled conditions, but then DNA extraction becomes a challenge and you need a really good extraction kit.
for up to 10-12 months we keep leaves in cryotubes at -80C, but you must be very quick when extracting DNA from these sample as they still have frozen water in them. Liquid nitrogen is more expensive way to store, but a bit more reliable too.
Have no experience with storage in ethanol, but if I were you I would first check if that way is compatible with your subsequent DNA extraction method, just to be sure it works,
good luck.
You can store fresh leaves from most plant species at 4°C for up to 24 hours. DNA quality or yield will not be impaired. For longer periods, if you have immediate access to -80C freezer, than this is probably best way to go.
If you don't want to/can't freeze your samples, than you have to dry them. For this, you can choose between silica gel, lyophilizers or even food dehydrators. You should desiccate your leaves quickly though - in less than 24 hours. In this way, you will prevent DNA degradation. Store these samples for long-term in the dark at room temperature making sure the conditions stay desiccating (put some silica gel in with the material).
This post can come very handy as well: http://plantarum.ca/botany/silica/
Good luck!
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