title: Culture collections in the twenty-first century.
abstract: Culture collections conserve the living tools for biotechnology. Without them there would be no reference organisms, and no stocks of crucial or rare microorganisms that are so valuable for biotechnology and biomedical research. The expertise that drives these collections is under threat, but the collections themselves may survive by pooling their knowledge.
authors.affiliation: CABI Bioscience UK Centre, Surrey, UK.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Ryan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D008828:Microbiological Techniques; D011309:Preservation, Biological / Q000379:methods; D006113:United Kingdom