Subsurface environmental samples from the Atlantis Massif on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge Raw sequence reads. Subsurface environmental samples from the Atlantis Massif on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Fluorescence activated cell sorting was used to overcome low biomass limitations in sediment and oceanic crust samples cored with seabed drills during IODP expedition X357 at the Atlantis Massif. Though there is increasing understanding of the ecology, diversity and activity of microbial life in deep sediments, little is known about the microbial life inhabiting oceanic crust, in part due to the challenges inherent to low biomass settings. This C-DEBI project investigated the use of fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) as a means of concentrating microbial cells from low biomass samples for downstream DNA sequencing.