Comparison of three DNA extraction methods for recovery of microbial DNA from Arctic permafrost

Sarah Feng; Marla DeKlotz; Neslihan Taş

doi:10.17912/micropub.biology.000834

Comparison of three DNA extraction methods for recovery of microbial DNA from Arctic permafrost

MicroPubl Biol. 2023 Jun 21:2023:10.17912/micropub.biology.000834. doi: 10.17912/micropub.biology.000834. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Sarah Feng¹, Marla DeKlotz¹, Neslihan Taş¹

Affiliation

¹ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, United States.

Abstract

Permafrost soils, which contain one of Earth's largest terrestrial carbon stocks, are vulnerable to thaw and microbial decomposition, exacerbating climate change. Advancements in sequencing technologies have facilitated the identification and functional profiling of microbial communities in permafrost, but DNA extraction from these soils is challenging due to their high microbial diversity and low biomass. This study assessed the effectiveness of the DNeasy PowerSoil Pro kit in extracting DNA from permafrost samples and found that it produced significantly different results than the discontinued DNeasy PowerSoil kit. The study highlights the importance of consistent DNA extraction methods in permafrost studies.

Grants and funding

Funding for this study was provided to Dr. Neslihan Taş by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research in the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science - Early Career Research Program. This work used the Vincent J. Coates Genomics Sequencing Laboratory at UC Berkeley, supported by the NIH S10 OD018174 instrumentation grant.