Abstract
Successful preservation of tissue samples is a prerequisite to long field studies in remote areas. However, the published literature provides little information concerning field preservation of marine invertebrate tissues for DNA analyses. This omission is significant because marine biodiversity is centered in the Indo-Pacific, where immediate DNA analysis is often impossible. Consequently, we used a PCR-based assay to examine the effect of five storage solutions and three temperature regimes on the degradation of DNA from four common classes of marine invertebrates (Anthozoa, Gastropoda, Polychaeta, Scyphozoa). Control samples were cryopreserved. Storage solution and the type of tissue preserved were the best predictors of preservation success. The length of time in storage and the storage temperature also affected the preservation of DNA. A field-test demonstrates that DMSO-NaCl solution preserves a wide range of tissues for DNA analyses and is very simple to use in remote field locations.