How should RNA oligonucleotides be stored?

The best way to store RNA is as a dry pellet at -20 °C to -80 °C and to avoid frequent freeze-thaw cycles. If you want to store your RNA in solution re-suspend the delivered pellet in an RNAse-free solution buffered at pH 7.4 - 7.6 and store at -20 °C or less. We recommend that RNAs are re-suspended at a convenient stock concentration and stored in small aliquots to avoid multiple freeze thaw cycles.

For modified oligonucleotides – especially for fluorescent dye labelled oligos – you should minimize the probe’s exposure to light because of its bleaching effect. Additionally, we recommend storing dye labelled oligos highly concentrated, rather than in working dilutions, if you don’t use them immediately. The higher the dilution factor the faster the fluorescent activity decreases/fluorescence fades away. Therefore, try to store highly concentrated aliquots frozen, thaw them only once, and dilute them just before usage. Click here to download our guidelines for handling RNAs.