Coral Symbiont Extraction (How To)

[@MitchellSmelser]

Loved the video super helpful! Do you have a video/methods for the blasting technique? Does your air-pressure blasting intrinsically separate the symbionts from the tissue? Or are you removing all soft tissue from skeleton? coral and symbiont alike? You mentioned you had a small amount of coral tissue remaining in the 50ml tubes prior to the initial centrifuge. It seemed like a relatively small amount - how did you separate the coral tissue at such an early step (before centrifuging). Thank you! (MS student at SIO)

[@Stephanbitterwolf]

Hi Mitchel, oops sorry for the late reply. I don't typically check my comments. I'd be happy to talk about the method but am not sure if I have a video of it. Once you get the equipment it is pretty easy though. I removed all of the tissue from the skeleton, then I homogenized it, and after that the separation is done with a series of centrifuge steps.

[@afreenhussain9986]

Hey thaanks! What can we use if we don't have a homegeniser?😢

[@Stephanbitterwolf]

Hi no problem! You could use the needle shearing method. Get a 25 gauge syringe and pass the sample through it 5 or so times. Here is a paper that talks about the method a bit: 10.1371/journal.pone.

[@muhammadshafi5396]

can we extract DNA from Coral reefs if we find outside water by fishermen