Role of Barcoding at Culture Collections

Frithjof C. Küpper

Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa (CCAP)

Scottish Association for Marine Science

Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory

Oban, Argyll PA37 1QA, Scotland, UK

Barcoding and Culture Collections

Two main aspects:

• CCs as repositories of biological standards

• Operational benefits of barcode sequences for CCs

Barcoding and Culture Collections

Two main aspects:

• CCs as repositories of biological standards

• Operational benefits of barcode sequences for CCs

Culture collections as repositories

of biological standards

• Long-term safekeeping of type cultures and model / reference strains

→ Barcode sequences in databases need to be matched by the “real thing“ somewhere: type materials

→ An emerging role for CCs and other biological resource centers (BRCs)

Barcoding and Culture Collections

Two main aspects:

• CCs as repositories of biological standards

• Operational benefits of barcode sequences for CCs

Operational benefits of barcode sequences for

culture collections

• Quality control / strain identity

→ Potential to obtain an unambiguous identifier for every single strain

• “the dirty little secret of culture collections”

• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Credits

Chenal de l’Ile de Batz, Roscoff – FCK, 1996

Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory, Oban, Scotland

Thank you.