Belgian consortium managing collections of microbial genetic resources.
Belgian Co-ordinated Collections of Micro-organisms
The Belgian Co-ordinated Collections of Micro-organisms is a Belgian federal government funded consortium of seven Biological Resource Centres, who manage and exploit complementary collections of microbial genetic resources. The consortium comprises more than 86,000 publicly available strains of bacteria (including mycobacteria and cyanobacteria), filamentous fungi, yeasts, diatoms, and plasmids. In addition, more than 200,000 individual clones of DNA libraries are also available. The consortium also offers services and training to researchers from public and private sector.
The consortium consists of the following 7 BRCs, funded and coordinated by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO):
- BCCM/LMG is a bacterial culture collection currently comprising over 25,000 well-characterised strains. The biological origin of the collection is very broad, including bacterial isolates from food, clinical, veterinary, agricultural, aquatic and other environmental sources. Contact: lmg@UGent.be
- BCCM/IHEM is a fungal culture collection specialised in medical and veterinary isolates. Almost 15,000 isolates from all over the world are available: yeasts and filamentous fungi, pathogens and allergenic or toxic species, reference strains and teaching material. Contact: ihem@sciensano.be
- BCCM/ITM harbours one the largest and most diverse collections of well-documented mycobacteria. Contact: BCCM.ITM@itg.be
- BCCM/MUCL develops and preserves the collection of filamentous fungi, yeasts and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi of agro-food and environmental interest. Contact: bccm-mucl@uclouvain.be
- The BCCM/GeneCorner Plasmid Collection is a unique plasmid repository in Europe. It warrants the long-term storage and distribution of plasmids, microbial host strains and DNA libraries of fundamental, biotechnological, educational or general scientific importance. Contact: genecorner@ugent.be
- BCCM/DCG is the only culture collection worldwide specialised in diatoms, the most species-rich and ecologically important group of algae. Contact: dcg@UGent.be
- BCCM/ULC is a small and dedicated public collection, currently containing one of the largest collections of documented (sub)polar cyanobacteria worldwide with more than 100 strains characterised by phenotypic and genotypic analyses. Contact: ULC@ulg.ac.be
Type: distributed infrastructure
Creation date: 1983
Access & costs:
- Free for deposits in public collections.
- For safe and patent deposits or for material requests: see the Price lists.
- Access conditions: see Material Deposit Agreement & Material Transfer Agreement.
Website: http://bccm.belspo.be
Contact: Marleen Bosschaert, BCCM manager: maria-helena.BOSSCHAERTS@belspo.be.