Hunting the tardigrade: one small step in sequencing DNA of all life on Earth

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The Institute sequences 48 genomes each week and has completed 2,600 so far, focusing mostly on British and Irish species. The current work targets tardigrades collected from moss and lichen on the Cambridge campus, using a picogram-input multimodal sequencing protocol that amplifies DNA from a single specimen — avoiding the older need to pool 1,000 individuals. Four high-quality tardigrade genomes are already in public databases, another 14 are in progress, and approximately 50 species are frozen awaiting sequencing. The project follows the tardigrade's win in the Guardian invertebrate of the year contest.