# What is the best way to preserve biological samples? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 13, 2004, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-preserve-biological-samples/279566 "2004-12-13T08:23:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-preserve-biological-samples/279566/1 "2004-12-13T08:23:24Z")
I don’t know much about labratory conditions, so this may be a stupid question. How are biological samples normally perserved for later experimentation? Refridgeration? Freezing? ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-preserve-biological-samples/279566/2 "2004-12-13T09:04:40Z")
How you would store the sample depends on two things: 1. what you have a sample of, and 2. what you want that sample for. What’s your sample of? Fossilized plant matter? A recently drawn human blood sample? A beetle in alcohol? A live bacterial culture? Do you want that sample so you can extract DNA from it? Are you looking for RNA? Proteins? Parasites? Or do you want to preserve morphological features of the sample in question? Is there something else you’re interested in learning, using that sample? The way you treat a soil sample used in biodiversity work (there are tons of microbes, fungi, and various little animal things in soil, many of which have yet to be identified) is going to be very different from the way you’d treat something you want to use to make a cDNA library. Could you make your question a little more specific? What sorts of samples do you have in mind, and what kinds of experimentation are you thinking of? ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-preserve-biological-samples/279566/3 "2004-12-13T09:10:03Z")
Hypotehically, if one wanted to store Virii. ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-preserve-biological-samples/279566/4 "2004-12-13T09:16:38Z")
What kind of virus? ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-preserve-biological-samples/279566/5 "2004-12-13T09:17:47Z")
And what do you want to do with that virus? ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-preserve-biological-samples/279566/6 "2004-12-13T09:26:22Z")
RNA Virus. I want to know how something would be hypotheically stored for use. Nothing too explicit, just the general idea. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-preserve-biological-samples/279566/7 "2004-12-13T19:04:03Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > I want to know how something would be hypotheically stored for use. What kind of use? Use in what? Do you want to use it to infect people later? Are you going to isolate the RNA for study? Are you going to look at the proteins? What? ---
**Author:** ![KP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-preserve-biological-samples/279566/8 "2004-12-13T22:52:00Z")
While I agree with all the points and questions raised above [I was a molecular biologist once), I think that the OP would be happy with the following answer: An pure sample RNA virus will generally remain viable for decades, if frozen while suspended in an aqueous buffered solution. There are all sorts of niceties you could employ to optimize the buffer [especially if you want to use it right after defrosting, rather than amplifying it first), and liquid nitrogen freezing could probably get you centuries of storage, but all those details start to tread in dangerous territory and technical specifics. Suffice it to say: a little virus goes a long way, and you can retain a substantial fraction of viable infective units by a simple deep freeze. Virologists expect to find surviving infectious Spanish flu virus (an orthomyxovirus) in bodies buried with no special preparation in the arctic during the 1918 epidemic. That’s about 85 years ago. In fact, there was talk of an expedition to recover such samples about 10 years ago. I don’t recall if it ever took place or if it was successful. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-preserve-biological-samples/279566/9 "2004-12-13T23:24:22Z")
-Concentrate on a column and then dialyze the retrovirus in an isotonic buffered solution containing 2% glycerol. -Stick it in a -80 [sup]o[/sup]C freezer or in liquid N[sub]2[/sub] cryostorage. Keeps about forever. ---
**Author:** ![Bob55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Bob55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob55)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-preserve-biological-samples/279566/10 "2004-12-13T23:37:11Z")
We store E. coli in -80 freezers. I used to add 30% glycerol and they’ve been fine but recently we started using 1/10th final volume of 10x HMFM: 36 mM K2HPO4 13 mM KH2PO4 20 mM Na3citrate 10 mM MgSO4.7H2O 44% (v/v) glycerol ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-preserve-biological-samples/279566/11 "2004-12-14T01:05:46Z")
> [@KP](#): > > While I agree with all the points and questions raised above [I was a molecular biologist once), I think that the OP would be happy with the following answer: > > An pure sample RNA virus will generally remain viable for decades, if frozen while suspended in an aqueous buffered solution. There are all sorts of niceties you could employ to optimize the buffer [especially if you want to use it right after defrosting, rather than amplifying it first), and liquid nitrogen freezing could probably get you centuries of storage, but all those details start to tread in dangerous territory and technical specifics. Suffice it to say: a little virus goes a long way, and you can retain a substantial fraction of viable infective units by a simple deep freeze. > > Virologists expect to find surviving infectious Spanish flu virus (an orthomyxovirus) in bodies buried with no special preparation in the arctic during the 1918 epidemic. That’s about 85 years ago. In fact, there was talk of an expedition to recover such samples about 10 years ago. I don’t recall if it ever took place or if it was successful. Thanks. That’s what I wanted to know. BTW, I read an article recently that the Universtiy of Washington is examining samples of the spanish flu found in an artic corpse… [http://www.bariumblues.com/recreating\_the\_spanish\_flu.htm](http://www.bariumblues.com/recreating_the_spanish_flu.htm)