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Microbes and microbiome

Microbiome research guidelines

A world both stunning and staggering

Where there is life, there are microbes. Rich in complexity, these diverse organisms form intricate networks, affecting the well being of humans, animals, plants and the environment, for good and for bad. Deciphering microbiomes is a task both stunning and staggering. Samples are often a complicated mixture of microbe entangled with their metabolic products, organic and inorganic materials, biopolymers and metal ions.

Here, we provide guidelines to improve the reliability, reproducibility and quality of results from your most challenging samples.

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How challenging is your sample?

Extracting nucleic acids from samples from diverse sources can be challenging in different ways. First, microbes have various cellular structures, such as distinctive cell walls, that can make them tough to disrupt, lyse and homogenize. Furthermore, some sample homogenates contain higher amounts of inhibitors. These impede or influence many downstream applications such as PCR and sequencing. Find our guidelines below for improving your results when working with microbes.