Support of a Living Stock Collection of Bacteria, Archaea, and Bacteriophages at the ATCC

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This award renews partial support for the Bacteriology Collection of the American Type Culture Collection. The Collection, which currently consists of approximately 15,400 bacteria and bacteriophage, is perhaps the most diverse assemblage of Prokaryotes in the world. Approximately a third of the Collection's holdings have been accessioned using the support provided by NSF since 1974. Sample cultures of the collected organisms are provided to the scientific community on request for a modest charge. Although support is provided by other federal agencies as well as by NSF, user fees represent the largest single source of income for operation of the Collection. The sample cultures provided to researchers, educators and others are used in a variety of applications in basic and applied research, education and manufacturing procedures. Authentication and internal quality control activities represent a significant portion of the activities connected with collection maintenance. The majority of the strains have been identified and verified extensively by a suite of physiological, morphological, cytochemical, and genotypic characteristics specific to a given species.