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The Role of Informatics in the Coordinated Management of Biological Resources Collections

  • Review Article
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Applied Bioinformatics

Abstract

The term ‘biological resources’ is applied to the living biological material collected, held and catalogued in culture collections: bacterial and fungal cultures; animal, human and plant cells; viruses; and isolated genetic material. A wealth of information on these materials has been accumulated in culture collections, and most of this information is accessible. Digitalisation of data has reached a high level; however, information is still dispersed. Individual and coordinated approaches have been initiated to improve accessibility of biological resource centres, their holdings and related information through the Internet. These approaches cover subjects such as standardisation of data handling and data accessibility, and standardisation and quality control of laboratory procedures. This article reviews some of the most important initiatives implemented so far, as well as the most recent achievements. It also discusses the possible improvements that could be achieved by adopting new communication standards and technologies, such as web services, in view of a deeper and more fruitful integration of biological resources information in the bioinformatics network environment.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank all researchers who contributed to the setting up of CABRI services and are now supporting the objectives of the EBRCN project. Many thanks go to Beatrice Dutertre (CERDIC, France) and Martine Vanhoucke (BCCM/LMBP, Belgium) who commented on the draft versions of this paper. And a very special thanks goes to Brendan Vaughan who implemented the very first version of the CABRI site and created the original versions of the Perl scripts.

EU funded project “Common Access to Biotechnological Resources and Information - CABRI”, 4th Framework Programme, Biotechnology, BI-O4-CT96-0231, 1996–1999. EU funded project “European Biological Resource Centers Network - EBRCN”, 5th Framework Programme, Area 14: Research Infrastructures, QLRI-CT-2000-00221 and QLRT-2001-02806, 2001–2004.

The authors have no conflicts of interest that are directly relevant to the content of this review.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Cancer Research Institute, Genoa, Italy

    Paolo Romano & Maria Assunta Manniello

  2. Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen, Braunschweig, Germany

    Manfred Kracht & Dagmar Fritze

  3. Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Gerrit Stegehuis

Authors
  1. Paolo Romano
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  2. Manfred Kracht
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  3. Maria Assunta Manniello
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  4. Gerrit Stegehuis
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  5. Dagmar Fritze
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Correspondence to Paolo Romano.

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Romano, P., Kracht, M., Manniello, M.A. et al. The Role of Informatics in the Coordinated Management of Biological Resources Collections. Appl-Bioinformatics 4, 175–186 (2005). https://doi.org/10.2165/00822942-200594030-00002

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