>How well would grain alcohol products, such as Everclear, work in preserving
>useful genetic material? I think that is the highest proof ethanol available to
>the layman.

I have not experimented myself, but I believe even gin is strong enough to
preserve DNA.  You might want to change the ethanol after leaving the
specimen in for a day or so to compensate for dilution by the water that
was in the specimen.

You can get over 180 proof by distilling it yourself, but it might be
difficult convincing the police that your still is for scientific research.


>Also, how long are ethanol preserved specimens viable for such research?

I keep my samples in a freezer once I get back from collecting.  The
longest I have kept specimens before keeping them cold is about two weeks.
I have gotten DNA from samples kept in the freezer for a few years.  I have
not gotten good DNA from museum samples collected several years ago, but I
do not know what preservatives were used nor the conditions during storage.
More intensive effort might get useful DNA out of older material.

As long as the specimens are preserved promptly, the DNA will be stable for
a while, but I do not know what the upper limit would be.  Certainly, you
could wait until you had collected and sorted several specimens and then
send them by ordinary mail to the appropriate lab.


David Campbell

"Old Seashells"

Department of Geological Sciences
CB 3315 Mitchell Hall
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill NC 27599-3315
USA

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919-962-0685
FAX 919-966-4519

"He had discovered an unknown bivalve, forming a new genus"-E. A. Poe, The
Gold Bug