[Nhcoll-l] [EXTERNAL] Best practices for transferring specimens from RNAlater to ethanol + transferring specimens from -80 to room temp

[Shoobs, Nate]

Doug — I have also noticed this in a bottle we have in the lab that is about 10 years old at this point, and the manufacturer’s product info does actually say that the salts can crystallize and come out of solution:
I see a precipitate in my RNAlater Stabilization Solution. What should I do?

Heat the solution to 37 degrees C for 15 minutes and agitate to redissolve it.

I agree that this really does indicate it’s not stable long term.


-
Nathaniel F. Shoobs, Curator of Mollusks
College of Arts & Sciences Dept. of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University
Museum of Biological Diversity
1315 Kinnear Rd, Columbus, OH 43212
614-688-1342 (Office)
mbd.osu.edu<http://mbd.osu.edu/>
________________________________
From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Douglas Yanega <dyanega at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, 02 July 2026 10:52:40
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERNAL] Best practices for transferring specimens from RNAlater to ethanol + transferring specimens from -80 to room temp

On 7/1/26 6: 36 PM, John E Simmons wrote: RNA later [snip] contains sodium citrate tribasic dehydrate (as a buffer) and ammonium sulfate (a protein precipitator), but as far as I have been able to determine, it does not contain any chemicals

On 7/1/26 6:36 PM, John E Simmons wrote:

RNA later [snip] contains sodium citrate tribasic dehydrate (as a buffer) and ammonium sulfate (a protein precipitator), but as far as I have been able to determine, it does not contain any chemicals known to be successful long-term preservatives. The few published reports of it as a successful fixative or preservative are all based on relatively short time periods.

FWIW - I can add an anecdotal observation, but noteworthy:

I recently helped clean up the lab of a deceased colleague who had been a very early adopter of RNA later, but stopped using it almost as rapidly; every single bottle (and there were many) of his remaining stock had been sitting sealed and untouched for years, and every single bottle contained large amounts of hard, white precipitate of unknown composition. It is clearly NOT stable over time.

Peace,

--
Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314    phone: 951-827-4315
FaceBook: Doug Yanega (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
             https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://faculty.ucr.edu/*heraty/yanega.html__;fg!!KGKeukY!xfki_L0fbempAyPxEOBCIkRnOjz5o5zLSP9sF4Eao5HTXb97mVLZKqSA4OqHyorqkv7i2U9BQ0HnNdk$>
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20260702/ba6d5def/attachment.html>