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A EUROPEAN NETWORK OF MICROBIAL CULTURE COLLECTION DATABANKS: INTEGRATED CATALOGUE

Objective

CATALOGUE INFORMATION AND STRAIN DATA OF THE MAJOR EC CULTURE COLLECTIONS WILL BE AVAILABLE ON-LINE FOR RESEARCH WORKERS, INDUSTRIALISTS AND OTHER USERS.

ULTIMATELY, THE PROJECT WILL LEAD TO A GREATER INTEGRATION OF EC CULTURE COLLECTIONS AND TO THEIR INCREASED COMPETITIVITY.
The MINE project was started to meet society's increasing need for up to date, rapidly accessible and authoratative information on microorganisms kept in culture collections. This need is particularly manifest for biotechnology. In this light, the European Economic Community (EEC) activated collections in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (UK), to start a common information network, which has now been extended to collections in France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

The major result of this project is that agreement has been reached on storage of microbial data according to a common format. The information stored in important collections has now been formatted according to this system. Part of the local and national collections can be consulted online. The national collections in turn act as focal points for collections in the respective countries. The network has thus developed with many more participants than orginally stated. Integrated databases have been created for fungi and yeasts and for bacteria. Each of these databases contains catalogue and extended data from various national nodes.
REPRESENTATIVES OF CULTURE COLLECTIONS IN BELGIUM, GERMANY, THE NETHERLANDS, THE UNITED KINGDOM AND PORTUGAL, WILL ESTABLISH A MICROBIAL INFORMATION NETWORK FOR EUROPE (MINE) DURING THE PERIOD 1986-1989.

THE NETWORK WILL CONSIST OF A CENTRAL DIRECTORY INTERFACED WITH REGIONALLY CO-ORDINATED DATABASES. IT IS ANTICIPATED THAT ALL PUBLIC CULTURE COLLECTIONS IN COUNTRIES PARTICIPATING IN THE MINE PROJECT WILL BE REPRESENTATED BY A DATABASE CREATED BY THE CURATOR OF THE COLLECTION IN CONJUNCTION WITH TECHNICAL AND DATA ENTRY PERSONNEL AT THE REGIONAL DATABASE SITE.

AIM OF THE PORTUGUESE PROJECT :

A) REIDENTIFICATION OF THE 1 400 STRAINS OF THE YEAST CULTURE COLLECTION OF THE GULBENKIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE, OEIRAS, PORTUGAL, BASED ON LABORATORY DATA OBTAINED FOLLOWING THE MINE FORMAT FOR YEAST STRAIN RECORDS;
B) INTRODUCING OF IMPROVED METHODS FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF CULTURE COLLECTIONS;
C) PREPARATION AND PUBLICATION OF A CATALOGUE OF THE COLLECTION;
D) INTEGRATION OF THE COLLECTION IN THE "MICROORGANISMS INFORMATION NETWORK IN EUROPE" (MINE) AND PERSPECTIVE DATA BANK(S).

Topic(s)

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Call for proposal

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Coordinator

INSTITUTO GULBENKIAN DE CIENCIA
EU contribution
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Address
APARTADO 14
2781 OEIRAS
Portugal

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Total cost
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Participants (4)