The US Culture Collection Network responding to the requirements of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing

Authors: MCCLUSKEY, KEVIN - KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY; BARKER, KATHARINE - SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE; HAZEL, BARTON - UNIVERSITY OF AKRON; BOUNDY-MILLS, KYRIA - UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA; BROWN, DANIEL - UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA; CODDINGTON, JONATHAN - SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE; COOK, KEVIN - INDIANA UNIVERSITY; DESMETH, PHILIPPE - BELGIAN SCIENCE POLICY OFFICE; GEISER, DAVID - PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY; GLASER, JESSIE - FOREST SERVICE (FS); GREENE, STEPHANIE; SEOGCHAN, KANG - PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY; LOMAS, MICHAEL - NATIONAL CENTER FOR MARINE ALGAE AND MICROBIOTA; MELCHER, ULRICH - OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY; MILLER, SCOTT - SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE; NOBLES, DAVID - UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN; OWENS, KRISTINA - EVERSOLE ASSOCIATES; REICHMAN, JEROME - DUKE UNIVERSITY; DA SILVA, MANUELA - OSWALDO CRUZ FOUNDATION; WERTZ, JOHN - YALE UNIVERSITY; WHITHWORTH, CALE - INDIANA UNIVERSITY; SMITH, DAVID - COMMONWEALTH AGRICULTURAL BUREAU INTERNATIONAL (CABI)

Submitted to: American Society for Microbiology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/17/2017
Publication Date: 8/15/2017
Citation: Mccluskey, K., Barker, K.B., Hazel, B.A., Boundy-Mills, K., Brown, D.R., Coddington, J.A., Cook, K., Desmeth, P., Geiser, D., Glaser, J.A., Greene, S.L., Seogchan, K., Lomas, M.W., Melcher, U., Miller, S., Nobles, D., Owens, K.J., Reichman, J.H., Da Silva, M., Wertz, J., Whithworth, C., Smith, D. 2017. The US Culture Collection Network responding to the requirements of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing. American Society for Microbiology. doi:10.1128/mBio.00982-17.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.00982-17

Interpretive Summary: The US Culture Collection Network shared information about how collections are responding to the requirements of the recently enacted Nagoya Protocol, on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity. The participants learned about US and other countries’ policies regarding access to genetic resources, the definition of genetic resources, and the status of historical materials and genetic sequence information. Key topics included what constitutes access, and how the CBD Access and Benefit Sharing Clearinghouse can help guide researchers through the process of obtaining Prior Informed Consent on Mutually Agreeable Terms. US scientists and their international collaborators are required to follow the regulations of other countries when working with microbes originally isolated outside the USA and the local regulations required by the Nagoya Protocol vary by the country of origin of the genetic resource.

Technical Abstract: The US Culture Collection Network held a meeting to share information about how collections are responding to the requirements of the recently enacted Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity. The meeting included representatives of many culture collections as well as from other biological collections, the US Department of State, the US Department of Agriculture, the Secretariat of the CBD, interested scientific societies, and collection groups including Scientific Collections International, and the Global Genome Biodiversity Network. The participants learned about US and other countries’ policies regarding access to genetic resources, the definition of genetic resources, and the status of historical materials and genetic sequence information. Key topics included what constitutes access, and how the CBD Access and Benefit Sharing Clearinghouse can help guide researchers through the process of obtaining Prior Informed Consent on Mutually Agreeable Terms. US scientists and their international collaborators are required to follow the regulations of other countries when working with microbes originally isolated outside the USA and the local regulations required by the Nagoya Protocol vary by the country of origin of the genetic resource. Diverse living collections in the US described their holdings and their efforts to provide access to genetic resources. This meeting laid the foundation for cooperation in establishing a set of standard operating procedures for US and international culture collections in response to the Nagoya Protocol.