The Belgian Co-ordinated Collections of Micro-organisms (BCCM) is a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

government funded consortium of seven scientific institutions, who manage and exploit a collection of microbial and genetic resources. The consortium comprises more than 269,000 publicly available strains of

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...

including mycobacteria and

cyanobacteria Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, blu ...

filamentous fungi A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi. Not ...

yeasts Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constitut ...

diatoms A diatom (New Latin, Neo-Latin ''diatoma''), "a cutting through, a severance", from el, διάτομος, diátomos, "cut in half, divided equally" from el, διατέμνω, diatémno, "to cut in twain". is any member of a large group com ...

and plasmids. BCCM is embedded in international initiatives such as the World Federation of Culture Collections ( WFCC) and operates in compliance with the rules of the

Nagoya Protocol The 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, also known as the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) is a ...

History

In 1983 the Belgian Council of Ministers decided to bring the microbial resources and the expertise available in different Belgian institutes together in a network of culture collections: with this the consortium of Belgian Co-ordinated Collections of Microorganisms (BCCM) saw the light of day. In 1983, the BCCM consortium consisted of the microbial collections of one public scientific institution and two universities: * the collection of medical

and

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

of the Mycology Laboratory of

Sciensano Sciensano is a research institute and the national public health institute of Belgium. It is a so-called federal scientific institution that operates under the authority of the federal minister of Public Health and the federal minister of Agric ...

(former Scientific Institute of Public Health) (BCCM/IHEM) * the collection of

and

arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi An arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) (plural ''mycorrhizae'', a.k.a. ''endomycorrhiza'') is a type of mycorrhiza in which the symbiont fungus (''AM fungi'', or AMF) penetrates the cortical cells of the roots of a vascular plant forming arbuscules. ...

of the Université catholique de Louvain (BCCM/MUCL) * the

collection of the Laboratory for Microbiology of the Faculty of Sciences of the

Ghent University Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium. Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when th ...

(BCCM/LMG). In 1990 the

plasmid A plasmid is a small, extrachromosomal DNA molecule within a cell that is physically separated from chromosomal DNA and can replicate independently. They are most commonly found as small circular, double-stranded DNA molecules in bacteria; how ...

collection of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of

was added to the consortium (BCCM/GeneCorner). In 2011, 3 additional dedicated collections were included in the BCCM consortium: * the

diatom A diatom (Neo-Latin ''diatoma''), "a cutting through, a severance", from el, διάτομος, diátomos, "cut in half, divided equally" from el, διατέμνω, diatémno, "to cut in twain". is any member of a large group comprising sev ...

collection of the Laboratory for Protistology & Aquatic Ecology of

(BCCM/DCG) * the mycobacteria collection of the

Institute of Tropical Medicine An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

in Antwerp (BCCM/ITM) * the

collection of the Centre for Protein Engineering of the

University of Liège The University of Liège (french: Université de Liège), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French. As of 2020, ULiège is ranked in the 301 ...

(BCCM/ULC).

Collection

Micro-organisms are an important raw material in biotechnology. The properties of bacteria, fungi, yeasts and diatoms are used in countless industrial applications and processes. Consider, for example, fermentation processes and the use of probiotics in foods, the production of antibiotics in medicine, the use of microorganisms as growth promoting elements in agriculture, as bioremediators on polluted sites, etc. Moreover, the properties of numerous microbial species are still unknown. Therefore public culture collections truly are a treasure trove of biological material, which can be explored through screening projects, for example.

Services

BCCM operates under a multi-site ISO 9001 quality management system Public collection The BCCM collections gather biological resources from all over the world, from samples constructed or isolated by the collections themselves or from samples provided by other scientists. These well-documented and authenticated strains of bacteria, filamentous and yeasts fungi (including the most important test and control strains), diatoms, plasmids and DNA libraries are made publicly available and are distributed worldwide. Strains for educational purposes are also available. Safe deposits Resources in the safe deposit collection are not catalogued, and are only available to the depositor, or to third parties with the written authorisation of the depositor. Patent deposits Under a Belgian Government initiative the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has recognised the BCCM consortium as an International Depositary under the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of Deposit of Microorganisms for Patent Procedure. The BCCM contributes to the innovation process by accepting and storing deposits of the biological materials referred to in patent applications. Therefore, the BCCM collections can accept as patent deposits under the Budapest Treaty: *all bacterial strains, except pathogens belonging to a hazard group higher than group 2 (BCCM/LMG) *filamentous fungi and yeasts, non-pathogenic to humans and animals, representing a wide species diversity from natural and industrial sources as well as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi preserved by in-vitro cultivation (BCCM/MUCL) *filamentous fungi and yeasts, including pathogens that cause mycosis in man and animals (BCCM/IHEM) *human and animal cell lines, including hybridomas (BCCM/GeneCorner) *genetic material in a host or in the form of isolated material (e.g. plasmids, oncogenes, RNA) (BCCM/GeneCorner) Other services Next to its collections of biological materials, BCCM also offers expertise in: * Identification : molecular biology – physiology – morphology – taxonomy * Screenings (e.g. genomic) for properties of interest * Industrial products and processes: quality – monitoring – biosafety * Food and agricultural products and processes: quality – safety – monitoring * Bio-assays : resistance – inhibition * Tailor-made approaches

Research

Research projects autonomously developed by BCCM staff or in collaboration with research groups of the host laboratories are focussed among others on: *

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

and

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

* preservation of genetic resources *

bioprospecting Bioprospecting (also known as biodiversity prospecting) is the exploration of natural sources for small molecules, macromolecules and biochemical and genetic information that could be developed into commercially valuable products for the agric ...

bioassay A bioassay is an analytical method to determine the concentration or potency of a substance by its effect on living animals or plants (''in vivo''), or on living cells or tissues(''in vitro''). A bioassay can be either quantal or quantitative, dir ...

s for

antibacterial An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention ...

activity screening * food bacteriology * population genetics * microbial interactions * molecular basis of genetic resources

Sources

Belgian Co-ordinated Collections of Micro-organisms - BCCM

Belgian Coordinated Collections of Micro-organisms
(Dutch)
Biological Resource Centre
(French)

External links