Safe and legal shipment of tissue samples: does it affect DNA quality?

摘要

Transport of tissue samples for DNA extraction between countries has become complicated by recent security issues and the fact that some commonly used preservatives (e.g. ethanol) are listed as 'dangerous goods'. As such, the shipment of samples for molecular studies requires complicated and often obscure arrangements and costly shipping methods. Alternative preservatives that are not classed as 'dangerous-goods' are available (e.g. RNAlater, Ambion; an RNA-stabilizing solution), some of which have proved to be successful in the field (e.g. DMSO salt-saturated solution, Seutin, White & Boag, 1991; Dawson, Raskoff & Jacobs, 1998). However, these preservatives may not be suitable for museum or long-term voucher collections, as the effects of long-term storage in these solutions are unknown.