The World Federation on Culture Collections: promoting microbial utilization for over 70 years
Kevin McCluskey: Kansas State University
<div>Research and application in plant pathology benefits greatly from access to validated microbial genetic resources. These may take the form of microbial type strains, or serogroup, vegetative compatibly group, or mating type testers as well as classical and GMO mutants, plant pathogen or growth promoting microbes, or whole genome sequence reference strains. To promote research robustness and reproducibility, validated microbial genetic resources are an essential infrastructure element for progress in plant pathology.</p> <p>The World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC) is a multidisciplinary federation within the International Union of Microbiological Societies. It provides a forum for interaction among over 210 member collections and over 700 registered collections. WFCC member collections manage over 400,000 microbe strains from nearly 50,000 species. Registered collections hold over 2 million validated strains of fungi, bacteria, archaea and viruses.</p> <p>WFCC collections agree to implement collective best practices including quality control, data management, and regulatory compliance. Because plant pathogenic microorganisms are often subject to formal oversight, deposit of materials in public service collections is the best way to insure that exchange is carried out in compliance with national and international regulations. Deposit in WFCC registered collections also insures the greatest impact for publications utilizing microbial genetic resources and is required for patent and taxonomic purposes.</div>
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