Abstract
This chapter overviews the role of Culture Collections (CCs) in the effective implementation of the “Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS)” quid pro quo: benefit sharing with providers in return for facilitated access for users. It highlights the need for sector specific solutions adapted to the technical specificities of microorganisms and to the legal, ethical, and social impacts of their uses. Exploration, study, and exploitation of the microbial realm imply access to huge numbers of microbiological specimens which must be conserved in specialized infrastructures to build microbiology on solid ground. CC are such professional structures specialized in long-term ex situ conservation of microbiological material and related data processing. CCs have evolved from simple storage and distribution centers of microbiological material to become critical infrastructures, sources of all the essentials for R&D. The term “Microbial Biobanks” now in use to designate CCs, reflects the increasing socioeconomic role of collections providing not only technically fit for use microbiological resources but also legal solutions in biotechnology. In that view, with the entry into force of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on 29 December 1993, and the Nagoya Protocol (NP) on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) on 12 October 2014, CCs acted proactively by designing sector specific solutions to implement the CBD and its NP. MOSAICC, the Micro-Organisms Sustainable use and Access regulation International Code of Conduct and TRUST, the TRansparent User-friendly System of Transfer, are forerunning initiatives concerning the implementation of the NP. Yet the breakthrough in the global handling of the NP is the development the Global Catalog of Microorganisms (GCM). The World Data Centre for Microorganisms (WDCM) of the World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC) manages GCM which combines as many online catalogs as possible, creating a robust system linking catalogs entries with all kinds of data and making them accessible through a single portal. It acts as information broker between the online catalog and the users. The system can potentially retrieve all kinds of information about microbiological resources, including information related to the possession, location, transfers, and use of microbial strains, including country of origin, creation of derived patents and all associated scientific publications as well as administrative paperwork. That makes GCM a transparent and sustainable data management system of ex situ microbial diversity worldwide. GCM is a powerful scientific tool as well as a way to build safe, ethical, and socioeconomically balanced ABS processes at global level. With GCM, WDCM strengthens the bridging role of CC between providers and users of microbiological resources.
Published Version
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