Storage of glycerol stocks - (May/23/2011 )

Help !
Our technician forget to replug our -80° freezer on power again, I discovered only 2 hours later and now the freezer is on -48°.
How bad is this for my bacterial glycerol stocks ?
And could they also be stored in liquid nitrogen ?
Please send me your experienced opinions.
pET

pET on Mon May 23 15:14:31 2011 said:

The stocks should be fine, we inoculate from glycerol stocks that thaw and refreeze all the time and they seem to stay pretty hearty.. Also there are times when the freezer gets around -50C when the freezer is getting de-iced and most of our stocks are almost 10 years old! Bacteria are quite resilient compared to eukaryotic cells that should be stored in liquid nitrogen. I flash freeze my e coli competent cells in nitrogen but then proceed to store them at -80C. Bacteria will lose competency if they start to get above -80C, but glycerol stocks just for inoculations should totally fine!

Trevor