New research reveals how to obtain high-quality DNA from marine samples

The oceans are still the most underexplored part of our planet. Diversity of large organisms in the Arctic Ocean has been investigated in many ways, yet research on the diversity of Arctic microorganisms is lacking. One of the problems, apart from inaccessibility, is obtaining high-quality microbial DNA: when working with natural samples, DNA often degrades—it is obtained in low quantities and can contain inhibitors that interfere with sequencing.