Metabarcoding of polymetallic nodule infauna (Nematoda)
Nematodes from polymetallic nodules were processed following Macheriotou et al. (2020), and DNA was extracted using CTAB buffer, proteinase-K, bead-beating, and alcohol purification. The 18S rRNA V1V2 region was amplified in triplicate with SSU_F_04 and SSU/22Rmod primers using Phusion polymerase. PCR products were visualized on agarose gels, pooled, purified with AMPure XP beads, and fragment size confirmed on a TapeStation. The final library was sequenced at Macrogen Europe on an Illumina MiSeq v3 platform (2  300 bp paired-end).