CSBR: Living Stocks: Species validation, enhanced data access and remote archiving of the Phaff Yeast Culture Collection

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The Phaff Yeast Culture Collection, at the University of California Davis, is particularly useful for basic research such as yeast physiology, yeast ecology (especially yeast-insect associations), comparative genomics, and taxonomy including discovery of new yeast species. The Phaff collection of yeasts are also used for applied research such as food and beverage fermentation, food spoilage, biofuels exploration, and the development of improved methods to identify yeasts that cause human infections. Through the activities supported in this project undergraduate students will receive training in taxonomy and molecular biology. In addition, middle school students including underrepresented groups will learn about microbiology and culture collections through presentations in the UC Davis Bio Boot Camp. The Phaff Yeast Culture Collection is the fourth largest yeast collection in the world. It contains over 7,000 strains belonging to approximately 800 yeast species. Most strains are unique and not available from any other source. This project proposes a major overhaul of the collection to make it more useful, visible, and valuable to the worldwide yeast research and education community. This project will align the Phaff collection with comparable collections in Europe and Asia. Aims include: 1) Validate and update yeast species ID by DNA sequencing, 2) Upgrade to a more powerful database, website and online strain catalog, 3) Expand global accessibility by plugging into the Global Catalog of Microorganisms, GenBank and MycoBank, and 4) Complete the archival storage of yeasts at a remote cryopreservation facility. By posting DNA sequences of accessions in GenBank and expanding information available on the Phaff collection online catalog the collection will be more visible and valuable for all users. Lessons learned through this project will be shared with other US culture collection curators through the NSF-funded US Culture Collection Network. More information is publically available at: http://phaffcollection.ucdavis.edu.