Not really. If you want tardigrade DNA, you have to break open their cells one way or another. In the pre-print referenced in the article, they basically just froze the tardigrades to -80°C and mechanically smashed them.<p>The problem is that bacteria are pretty fragile. So if you have a tardigrade that has some bacteria sitting on it (or the tardigrade just ate some), whatever process you use to extract the tardigrade DNA is also going to extract the bacterial DNA. Since this is done in solution, the bacterial and tardigrade DNA will be irrevocably mixed.<p>While they do wash and filter the tardigrades extensively and also starve them for several days before extracting their DNA, that&#x27;s still not enough to completely remove all bacteria.