-CBS and NCCB-

Group(s) of biological resources stored in the collection: bacteria, archaea, yeasts, filamentous fungi, oomycota, plasmids (including plasmid bearing strains), bacteriophages, bacterial genomic DNA, other genomic DNA

The Westerdijk Institute maintains the CBS Collection of yeasts and filamentous fungi, which was established as a public collection in 1904 and at present holds a very broad coverage of culturable filamentous fungi, yeasts and oomycetes. The CBS Collection comprises a total of 100 000 strains, representing 6 500 genera, 20 000 species, and 15 450 type strains. The institute also maintains the Netherlands Culture Collection of Bacteria (NCCB) , including 10 490 strains of wildtype bacteria and E.coli mutants, actinobacteria (accessioned under the CBS acronym), and over 560 plasmids and phages. Scientific and other data associated with these strains (including DNA barcode sequences of most of the CBS and NCCB strains) are maintained in databases and the information of publicly available strains are visible online.

Supply of living cultures or genomic DNA extracts

Deposit of cultures in the public collections

Deposit of cultures in the closed collection as safe- or patent deposits

Identification, freeze-drying on demand, isolation from mixed cultures

Databases with information on the cultures, including data on provenance, published DNA sequences, data on physiology, literature references, and links from strain to names in MycoBank with information on the current species, and synonyms

Other services provided by the experts in Westerdijk Institute research groups include:

--- surveys, sample analyses, challenge testing, strain safety assessments, and other customized services

--- consultancy

--- tailor-made mycological training

• Phylogeny and taxonomy, DNA barcoding, morphology, and nomenclature of filamentous fungi and yeasts

• Collection staff collaborates in various projects with the Westerdijk Institute research groups, which focus on yeast research, applied & industrial mycology, medical mycology, phytopathology, fungal physiology, fungal natural products, bioinformatics, software development and databasing.

The Westerdijk BRC is ISO 9001:2015 certified. The certificate covers the accession, preservation, storage and supply of microorganisms or their DNA (public deposits, safe deposits and patent deposits) and related information.