Reverse Transcriptase @ Room temperature for 48 hours - (Sep/27/2010 )

Hi all,

Just to share a tragic happening and seek suggestions..

Reverse Transcriptase was accidently left out at Room temperature for 2 days..!!!!!

Any chance of some activity left out??? (to go on till the next batch arrives...)
How fragile is this enzyme????

It is really sensible. I would not try to recover the activity since I will not trust the further results. Just throw it away.

I'm sorry

What about around 12 hours? Can I still use it?
Thank you!

Eylina on Wed Mar 13 16:52:48 2013 said:

I wouldn't recommend it, any results you have you should still be questioning if this is an effect of the RTase being at room temp.... therefore it is better to get some more, rather than waste time wondering if your results are correct. General rule: If in doubt, throw it out.

This is my suggestion: Never throw your mistakes away.

Alexander Fleming - “It may be - usually is, in fact - a false alarm that leads to nothing, but it may on the other hand be the clue provided by fate to lead you to some important advance.”

memari on Thu Mar 14 02:03:48 2013 said:

However, despite this - I am sure you would still discard a contaminated cell line, or a solution that has precipitated during storage, or something that has been stored incorrectly (as in the OP's question)...

one of the Transplant Anti-Rejection Medications (Cyclosporine ) was discovered by chance because a PhD or a PostDoc(I am not sure) saw a contamination in cell culture and he observed the effects of that fungus in cell culture.
He showed it to some PIs and his colleagues but they told him to throw it away because it is a simple contamination.

But he did do that and he discovered it.

There is a bit difference between serendipitous discoveries and using a now compromised reagent!

I think what you are talking about is actually two entirely different things. It's one thing not to instantly throw away an experiment that has gone wrong but make careful observations and possibly discover something new and unexpected (like in Fleming's case), I second that it's always important to observe when something turns out differently. However, this does not mean one should use a material gone bad in one's experiments on purpose - this is more likely a waste of time than leading to a new discovery.

And I just see that leelee stated the same thing in a lot less words