Hi Rahul,

I have used both in the past and have to say it really depends on the type of phytoplankton you are looking at.  Some species of armoured dinoflagellates, for example are tricky extract DNA from.  I have also had good luck with some ‘soil extraction kits’ from companies like Qiagen.  Good luck!

I send you   a file in which DNA and RNA extraction is described and the reference of the paper

For diatoms, we have used collection of samples on GF/F filters, then homogenization of filters with glass-tube and teflon pestle followed by a standard kit for DNA extraction from a soil sample (designed for bacteria). These kits are available from MO Bio, MP Biomedicals. 

You can find a exttaction protocol for diatom Didimosphenia geminata in Noelia M. Uyúa RG page

CTAB works well, standard procedure, cheap reagents, just an overnight step. USe conc between 1.5-3 % depending upon armoured or unarmoured phytoplankton. Else any plant or Soil DNA extraction kit should do the job. Qiagen is quite the trusted choice

you can see the publication :Harmful Algae 4 (2005) 49–60: Development and application of LSU rRNA probes for Karenia brevis in the Gulf of Mexico, USA. Christina M. Mikulski, Steve L. Morton, Gregory J. Doucette.

I collect phytoplankton on GF/F filters, then homogenizate the filters with AlO2 or liquid nitrogen and use kit «Nucleospin Plant» (Macherey-Nagel, Germany). The results are the same as  with CTAB protokol.

Hi Rahul,

I tried with Qiagen DNeasy Plant mini Kit with modification, u can use filter paper method or plankton from net for extraction, but freeze throwing at Liquid nitrogen, and homogenization using bead beating is essential and after that incubation at 3-6hr at 55C

please refer: Nowinski et al.,2019(Nature -Scientific data) Article Microbial metagenomes and metatranscriptomes during a coasta...