How to store a membrane? - (Mar/27/2012 )

I am a beginner in western blot.
Sometimes I need to store the membrane for later re-probing.
When I ask my colleagues, some said I should dry the membrane and store it in 4 degree
but I was told that the membrane should not be dried in any process,
so most of the colleagues store the membrane in TBST in 4 degree.
But when I search in the internet, I found that some people did dry the membrane in storage.

There are a few questions I want to know:
The rationale of drying the membrane in storage,
The consequence of drying the membrane, why the membrane should be kept wet?
How long can a membrane be kept, without affecting the result?
Which method can store the membrane for a longer time?


Thanks
Kyle

In theory both work well. In practice, storing a membrane wet is likely to result in bacterial or fungal contamination, unless you put some preservative such as NaN3 in there. Storing dry is fine, so long as it is not dried from a salt solution -rinse it in water before drying - so as to prevent salt crystals forming on the membrane.