Marine zooplanktic organisms, such as copepods, are usually associated with large numbers of bacteria. Some of these bacteria live attached to copepods' exoskeleton, while others prevail in their intestine and faecal pellets. Until now, general conclusions concerning the identity of these bacteria are problematic since the majority of previous studies focused on cultivable bacteria only. Hence, to date little is known on whether copepod genera or species harbour distinct bacterial populations and about the nature of this association. To shed more light on these copepod/bacteria consortia, the focus of this study was the development and evaluation of a suitable approach to extract bacterial DNA from different North Sea copepod genera. Furthermore, the bacterial DNA was analysed by PCR-DGGE and subsequent sequencing of excised bands. The result of this work was an appropriate extraction method for batches of ten to one copepod specimens and offered first insights as to which bacteria are attached to the copepods Acartia sp. and Temora sp. from Helgoland Roads (German Bight) and a laboratory-grown Acartia tonsa culture. It revealed the prevalence of Alphaproteobacteria. © 2010 Springer-Verlag and AWI.