Building more resilient culture collections: A call for increased deposits of plant-associated bacteria

Authors: Broders, Kirk; ASPIN, ANDREW - Fera Science Ltd; BAILEY, JORDAN - Nsw Department Of Primary Industries; CHAPMAN, TONI - Nsw Department Of Primary Industries; PORTIER, PERRINE - University Of Angers; WEIR, BEVAN - Landcare Research

Submitted to: Microorganisms
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/28/2022
Publication Date: 3/30/2022
Citation: Broders, K., Aspin, A., Bailey, J., Chapman, T., Portier, P., Weir, B.S. 2022. Building more resilient culture collections: A call for increased deposits of plant-associated bacteria. Microorganisms. 10(4). Article 741. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10040741.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10040741

Interpretive Summary: Bacterial pathogens are a major threat to food and fiber production worldwide. Microbial culture collections play an important role in monitoring and surveying bacterial pathogens by housing important reference strains that can be used to identify and characterize these pathogens. However, there are many gaps in these collections. An ARS researcher in Peoria, Illinois, worked with scientists and curators at culture collections in Australia, France, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom to review the role of culture collections in monitoring emerging pathogens and described areas where the scientific community can contribute by depositing more plant pathogenic bacteria. This is followed by a discussion on the best practices to improve microbial preservation and depositing rates and why plant bacterial culture collections must increase deposits to be prepared for new or introduced bacterial pathogens.

Technical Abstract: Biological collections preserve our past, while helping protect our future and increase future knowledge. Plant bacterial culture collections are our security for domestic and global biosecurity. This feature article will provide an introduction to the global position of plant bacterial collections. The role of collections in monitoring plant pathogenic bacteria will be explored through the presentation of five case studies. These case studies demonstrate why culture collections were imperative for the outcome in each situation. The authors will discuss what we believe should be the best practices to improve microbial preservation and accessioning rates and why plant bacterial culture collections must increase deposits to be prepared for future emerging pathogens. This is not only the case for global culture collections, it is much bigger than that, our future scientific successes, biosecurity decisions and responses, our knowledge are contingent upon preserving our valuable bacterial strains. Hopefully once you read this article you will see the need to deposit your strains in registered public collections and make a concerted effort to build better bacterial culture collections with us.