WP2 Establishment of bio-banks and Methodologies for Preservation of Microbiological Cultures
The West African microbial heritage has recently resulted in the
discovery of unique traits relevant for the food and
biotechnological sectors. Unfortunately, no facilities currently
exist in West Africa to preserve and utilize these hitherto
untouched but economically valuable natural biological resources.
The project will enable the West African countries to fully utilize
and preserve their own microbiological heritage and ensure the
sustainable use of this biological diversity for commercialization
within the food and biotechnological sectors by establishment of
local biobanks based on storage of microbial cultures in -80°C
freezers. As part of the biobanks procedures for maintenance and
effective reviving of isolates after storage will be developed to
ensure a stable viability and preservation of technological
properties. A generic system meeting the requirements by The World
Federation for Culture Collection will be produced. Procedures for
sampling and isolation will be according to ISO standards and
records on the exact origin of each isolate will be kept.
Procedures for documentation will be developed to fulfill the
requirements stated in the Rio Convention, Convention on Biological
Diversity.
Tasks in this work package are:
- Task 2.1 Bio-banks for storage of microbial cultures
- Task 2.2 Management of culture collections
- Task 2.3 Identification and documentation of microbial
cultures