Household items can preserve DNA
Wannabe-detectives can now preserve DNA using a few household items like hand sanitizer and antifreeze.
“This is great news because unlike high-concentration chemicals, such as 95 percent ethanol or pure propylene glycol — which are expensive and hard to access — these products are inexpensive and are commonly sold at grocery stores,” said Andrea Lucky, an assistant research scientist at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, and supervisor of Sedonia Steininger, the master’s student who led this study.
In the study, published in the journal Invertebrate Systematics, scientists preserved ambrosia beetles and found that alcohol-based hand sanitizer, and propylene and ethylene glycol-based automobile antifreeze can preserve DNA.
“This finding opens the door for much broader participation in citizen science,” Lucky said. “Now, there is an easy way for anyone who is interested in preserving insects for a project to get the materials themselves. It also means that professionals can sample more widely, at a lower cost and with fewer concerns about safety. This also offers a big boost for scientists who collect samples in remote locations, where accessing laboratory-grade materials can be difficult or impossible. We hope this encourages many more projects to incorporate a citizen science component without worrying about cost of or access to preservation materials.”
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