Organisms and Strains

General Databases
Animals
Plants
Microorganisms and Fungi
Viruses

American Type Culture Collection Home Page: The American Type Culture Collection is a private, non-profit organization located in Rockville, Maryland. Presently the following selections are searchable: cell cultures(3,000 lines); bacteria and bacteriophages (15,000 strains); protozoa and algae (1,200); animal and plant viruses (2,500); and recombinant material. Many of the media formulations are also available.
DSMZ Home Page - German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures: A comprehensive and very thorough collection. The DSMZ is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to the acquisition, characterization and identification, preservation and distribution of bacteria, Archaea, fungi, plasmids, phages, human and animal cell lines, plant cell cultures and plant viruses.

This searchable site contains a wide range of resources of interest to veterinarians, vet students, animal caretakers and pet owners. NetVet includes links to colleges, organizations, regulations, mailing lists, etc.

The Electronic Zoo

This site provides a positively staggering number of links to pages dealing with all kinds of animals -- everything from pets to lab animals to livestock to endangered species.

Institute for Animal Experimentation *

The Institute for Animal Experimentation in Tokushima, Japan has prepared a file listing about 170 inbred rat strains.

Interlab Project

The Cell Line Data Base (CLDB) provides information on about 3,000 human and animal cell lines. These lines are from repositories throughout Italy, as well as from major collections in other European countries, including the Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen, the Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (German Cancer Research Center), the European Collection of Animal Cell Cultures, and others. A partial list of the collections that can be accessed through HyperCLDB is available.

The strength of the CLDB is its access to many lines not found in other databases. Extensive information on these lines is often available, such as identification (karyology, morphology, etc.), origin, and preservation characteristics. The CLDB can be conveniently browsed via HyperCLDB or searched by keyword through HyperSearch.

Also available is the Molecular Probe Data Base, which lists around 3,000 synthetic oligonucleotides primarily related to human diagnostics.

Jackson Laboratory

The Jackson Labs provides price lists and other information about their mice lines.

Plants

AGIS Plant Genome Databases: These databases provide access to about a dozen plant species. Because some (but not all) of the data comes from GRIN (see separate entry, below) and some data in GRIN is not found in AGIS you really need to search both databases.
Lehle Seeds: A commercial supplier of Arabidopsis seeds and culture material.
Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre *: Contains a seed list for the Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre. Color images of over 600 stock lines are available. Additional information on the culture of Arabidopsis is also available.
Centre for Genetic Resources (Netherlands): This center maintains over 20,000 accessions of horticultural and agricultural crops. A variety of crops are available; wheat, barley, peas, lettuce, cruciferae and tomato are especially well represented. The actual accession files are available in zipped files, which must be unzipped before they can be viewed.
National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS)
Maize Genetics Cooperation Stock Center: This stock center is the main repository for maize mutants utilized by maize scientists conducting basic and applied biological research. From this home page you can order genetic stocks using the request form, obtain information about stocks, or obtain more information about the stock center.
Nordic Gene Bank: The Nordic Gene Bank collects germplasm used in agriculture and horticulture (as well as wild strains) in Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland. Directly accessible through the Web is the wheat database and the names of potato strains. Also available are files in dBASE format for forage, vegetables, and cereals other than wheat.
N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Plant Industry (VIR): This is an enormous germplasm database that contains almost 350,000 accessions, including approximately 50,000 accessions of wheat, 20,000 maize, and 10,000 potatoes. Access is provided to a PC file which must be downloaded and unzipped before it can be used. As the file is large (2 Mg) and the link is slow, downloading this file can take quite a while. Files for individual crops are also available.
National Research Support Project (NRSP=5): This site lists clones available and information about decidous fruit trees that are free of detectable viruses. This project also provides information on plant introduction, heat therapy, and virus testing services. Both pome fruits (e.g.., apples) and stone fruits (almond, cherry, peach, etc) are available.
Information System on Genetic Resources (GENRES): ZADI/IGR is developing the German Online Information System on Genetic Resources (GENRES). This contains germplasm databases and links to germplasm resources, especially (but not limited to) Germany.

Microorganisms and Fungi

BCCM: The Belgian Coordinated Collections of Microorganisms (BCCM) contains over 45,000 well-documented strains of bacteria, filamentous and yeast fungi, and 1,300 plasmids. The online datebase can be searched using a range of critera. The BCCM focuses on serving both the scientific and industrial sectors.
The Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa: The CCAP currently maintains approximately 2,000 strains of algae and protozoa and supplies these cultures to the research community and industry. This is a very useful web site; for example, the instructions for preparing dozens of culture media are available. The collection was first established at the German University in Prague and is now located in the United Kingdom.
CENTRAALBUREAU VOOR SCHIMMELCULTURES: The CBS was established in 1905 and is presently a scientific institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Cultures from the CBS are available to both commercial and non-profit organizations.
E. coli Genetic Stock Center: The E. coli Genetic Stock Center (CGSC) at Yale includes information about several thousand strains, mutations, genes, and references. Access is also provided via direct telnet to cgsc.biology.yale.edu. To gain direct access, you must obtain a password and login as guest. Send email to mary@cgsc.biology.yale.edu to obtain the current password for guest.
Fungal Genetics Stock Center: FGSC contains databases for Aspergillus, Fusarium, Nerurospora crassa, Neurospora sitophila, Neurospora tetrasperma as well as other species of Neurospora and related genera. Also present are individual plasmids (N. crassa and A. nidulans), A. nidulans gene libraries and N. crassa gene libraries. The site also contains a list of genes isolated from Aspergillus and Neurospora. Finally, reprints from the Fungal Genetics Newsletter are available.
IACR Plant Pathology Culture Collections: This collection (from the United Kingdom) contains over 600 cultures of soil-borne fungi from around the world. It primarily focuses on the Gaeumannomyces-Phialophora complex.
Microbial Information Network of China: Presently the China Directory of Microorganisms is available for searching. Organisms that are covered include bacteria, actinomycets, yeast, fungi, and viruses. Retrieved entries provide a few words on the use of the organisms, as well as the media and temperature used for culture.
MSDN - Microbial Strain Data Network
MYCOTEKET (Culture Collection at Uppsala University Sweden)
OCM: The Oregon Collection of Methanogens lets you order cultures from a collection of about 150 methanogens and 50 non-methanogens.
Provasoli-Guillard National Center for Culture of Marine Phytoplankton (Algae Aquaculture): This significant collection contains approximately 1,450 strains. Although the vast majority are marine phyoplanktons, benthic algae, marine macrophytes, and freshwater microalgae are also represented.
SMCC/W Home Page
Streptococcal Strain Directory: This directory lists almost all of the strains belonging to the Lancefield Collection at The Rockefeller Institute. There are over 6000 partially annotated and 1200 fully annotated strain listings.
WFCC World Data Centre for Microorganisms Viruses
Virus Resources

Last updated: July 25, 1998
URL: http://biotech.icmb.utexas.edu/pages/science/germstrains.html
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