Matthew J. Ryan

Fungal genetic resource centres and the genomic challenge.

Fungal research and education has for many years been supported by public service genetic resource centres, whose roles have been to maintain, preserve and supply living cultures to the research community. In the genomic era, genetic resource centres are perhaps more important than ever before. The cultures held, many of which are described and validated by expert biosystematists, are valuable resources for the future. There is a need to supply genomic and proteomic research programmes with fully characterised organisms, as usage of organisms from unreliable sources can prove disastrous, not least in economical terms. However, mycologists often require more than just the organisms, for example, their associated information is vital for bioinformatic applications and some researchers may only require genomic DNA from the organism rather than the organism per se. Genetic resource centres are continually adapting to meet the needs of their users and the wider mycological research community, this associated with OECD international initiatives should ensure they exist to support research for many years to come. This review considers the impact of such initiatives, the current roles of fungal genetic resource centres, the mechanisms used to preserve organisms in a stable manner and the range of resources that are offered for genomic research.

Implementing Best Practices and Validation of Cryopreservation Techniques for Microorganisms

Authentic, well preserved living organisms are basic elements for research in the life sciences and biotechnology. They are grown and utilized in laboratories around the world and are key to many research programmes, industrial processes and training courses. They are vouchers for publications and must be available for confirmation of results, further study or reinvestigation when new technologies become available. These biological resources must be maintained without change in biological resource collections. In order to achieve best practice in the maintenance and provision of biological materials for industry, research and education the appropriate standards must be followed. Cryopreservation is often the best preservation method available to achieve these aims, allowing long term, stable storage of important microorganisms. To promulgate best practice the Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation (OECD published the best practice guidelines for BRCs. The OECD best practice consolidated the efforts of the UK National Culture Collections, the European Common Access to Biological Resources and Information (CABRI) project consortium and the World Federation for Culture Collections. The paper discusses quality management options and reviews cryopreservation of fungi, describing how the reproducibility and quality of the technique is maintained in order to retain the full potential of fungi.

Cryopreservation and Freeze-Drying of Fungi Employing Centrifugal and Shelf Freeze-Drying

The aim of preserving a fungus is to maintain it in a viable state without change to its genetic, physiological, or anatomical characters. There are numerous methodologies available to preserve a fungus, but the two methods widely used by culture collections (biological or genetic resource centers) to achieve successful preservation are cryopreservation with liquid nitrogen using controlled-rate freezing and centrifugal freeze-drying. Generic methods are often used, but specific variations of a method may be required in order to achieve optimal stability. No single method can be applied to all fungi. More recently, techniques such as vitrification and encapsulation cryopreservation have been used to preserve recalcitrant fungi. The protocols described within this chapter have been developed over many years at one of the worlds largest culture collections of filamentous fungi.

Fungal sources for new drug discovery

Fungi play important roles in the environment and have the ability to exploit almost all niches, bot…

The U.S. Culture Collection Network Lays the Foundation for Progress in Preservation of Valuable Microbial Resources

The U.S. Culture Collection Network was formed in 2012 by a group of culture collection scientists and stakeholders in order to continue the progress established previously through efforts of an ad hoc group. The network is supported by a Research Coordination Network grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and has the goals of promoting interaction among collections, encouraging the adoption of best practices, and protecting endangered or orphaned collections. After prior meetings to discuss best practices, shared data, and synergy with genome programs, the network held a meeting at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Agricultural Research Service (ARS) National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation (NCGRP) in Fort Collins, Colorado in October 2015 specifically to discuss collections that are vulnerable because of changes in funding programs, or are at risk of loss because of retirement or lack of funding. The meeting allowed collection curators who had already backed up their resources at the USDA NCGRP to visit the site, and brought collection owners, managers, and stakeholders together. Eight formal collections have established off-site backups with the USDA-ARS, ensuring that key material will be preserved for future research. All of the collections with backup at the NCGRP are public distributing collections including U.S. NSF-supported genetic stock centers, USDA-ARS collections, and university-supported collections. Facing the retirement of several pioneering researchers, the community discussed the value of preserving personal research collections and agreed that a mechanism to preserve these valuable collections was essential to any future national culture collection system. Additional input from curators of plant and animal collections emphasized that collections of every kind face similar challenges in developing long-range plans for sustainability.

The United States Culture Collection Network (USCCN): Enhancing Microbial Genomics Research through Living Microbe Culture Collections.

ABSTRACT The mission of the United States Culture Collection Network (USCCN; http://usccn.org) is “to facilitate the safe and responsible utilization of microbial resources for research, education, industry, medicine, and agriculture for the betterment of human kind.” Microbial culture collections are a key component of life science research, biotechnology, and emerging global biobased economies. Representatives and users of several microbial culture collections from the United States and Europe gathered at the University of California, Davis, to discuss how collections of microorganisms can better serve users and stakeholders and to showcase existing resources available in public culture collections.

Candida keroseneae sp. nov., a novel contaminant of aviation kerosene.

Aims:  To characterize and identify a novel contaminant of aviation fuel.

Biological control and the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing – a case of effective due diligence

ABSTRACT Biological control agents must be collected and utilised in compliance with the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) which is being implemented independently by each country that is signatory to the Protocol. By March 2018, 50 countries had legislation in place with an additional 54 designing their Legislative, Administrative or Policy Measures having become Party to the Protocol. Apart from the problem of dealing with the many different mechanisms countries are putting in place, it is often difficult to find relevant information on the ABS Clearing House and to access and receive appropriate responses from the National Focal Points or Competent National Authorities. We feel that a lot of time is lost on both sides (National authorities and scientists seeking information), and the process would benefit from streamlining. Also, open questions remain, such as how to deal with the generation digital sequence information and what specific activities are considered utilisation, especially for biological control. CABI has pro-actively developed an ABS policy and best practices for its staff to try and comply with the Nagoya Protocol. In addition, CABI has started negotiations with several provider countries, beginning with its member countries, to have its ABS policy and best practices recognised, considering the non-monetary benefits typically associated with biological control. The Nagoya Protocol was born out of the necessity to guarantee the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources. However, it should not hinder the development of best practice solutions to protect exactly these genetic resources from threats like invasive species. It is important that research and development that addresses global societal challenges are not impeded and that science and its output are recognised as a way to preserve and use genetic resources in an equitable way.