Sea stars bacterial sampling
Collected sea stars by hand .
Rinse the location for sampling of the star with sterile seawater to remove any transient microbes .
This is important since the stars are in constant contact with environmental microbes and our sequencing technique is very sensitive ; therefore , rinsing reduces noise .
For healthy individuals the sampling site ( where the swabbing will occur ) should be approximately 15 by 10 cm .
Remove a clean sterile swab from its wrapping and the cotton tip should be applied to the previously rinsed sample location .
The swab should be pulled across the sample location with moderate pressure .
One ‘swab’ consists of pulling the swab back and forth one ; this should be done 10 times .
The swab should be placed into a labeled sterile screw cap tube and then kept on ice until it can be frozen at - 80° Swabs are then ready for DNA extraction .
Previously we have used a MoBio PowerSoil Kit .
