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Extracting DNA

Summer Student Fellow Erica Hildebrand of Connecticut College spent her summer working with WHOI biologist Stefan Sievert on a project to assess the microbial community composition of five distinct low-temperature (10ºC – 50ºC) diffuse flow deep-sea hydrothermal vents located on the East Pacific Rise at 9ºN. The vents have been repeatedly sampled over a period of 2 years subsequently to a volcanic eruption that occurred at this site in late 2005 to early 2006. Fluids were collected using a large volume pump to concentrate the microorganisms onto filters. Erica, shown here in Sievert’s Lab for Microbial Ecology and Physiology, is extracting DNA from some of the filters.

(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)