Studying the genomes of microorganisms is incredibly useful for understanding the microbiome of the earth, but most species do not grow easily in the lab. For years, extracting single cells and then amplifying their DNA for genome sequencing was no easy task. 

Described in ISME Communications, the traditional way of collecting them is through a method called Multiple Displacement Amplification, and most genomes that were acquired through it were usually only around 30% complete. However, a newer method called Primary Template-Directed Amplification (PTA) yields a much higher completion, above 80% in most cases. Learn more here on the JGI Website