Strengthening the Korean Network of Microbial Culture Collections in the Microbiome Era

Figures & data

Table 1. Microbial culture collections and their holdings of top 20 countries. Different colors represent different continents; blue for Asia, green for Oceania, yellow for America, and white for Europe.

Rank	2014*			2024**
	Country	No. of collections	No. of holdings	Country	No. of collections	No. of holdings
1	Japan	25	247,037	China	52	920,101
2	USA	24	242,436	USA	37	343,835
3	Brazil	65	176,902	Belgium	7	296,555
4	India	27	152,849	Japan	26	265,863
5	China	25	146,162	India	34	225,072
6	Korea	21	145,009	Korea	27	213,561
7	Germany	13	93,368	Chinese Taipei	3	158,143
8	Netherlands	6	90,775	Brazil	91	137,675
9	Denmark	3	88,566	Iran	24	116,754
10	France	38	86,350	Denmark	3	112,066
11	U.K.	19	84,210	Netherlands	6	110,775
12	Astralia	34	82,946	Germany	15	107,443
13	Canada	18	82,315	France	38	103,095
14	Chinese Taipei	2	67,227	Australia	34	97,207
15	Russia	22	60,168	Canada	20	88,741
16	Belgium	7	56,128	U.K.	19	87,669
17	Sweden	3	52,700	Russia	30	74,104
18	Thailand	60	43,251	Italy	25	62,195
19	New Zealand	6	25,045	Sweden	4	53,020
20	Italy	10	23,879	Thailand	65	43,687

*Data from [16].

**Data from https://www.wfcc.info (April 2024).

Table 2. Korean national microbial culture collections and existing resources as of December 2023. Culture collections are listed in alphabetical order.

Culture collection	Acronym	Governmental body	Years established	Holdings
Bank of Bioresources from Island and Coast	BOBIC	Ministry of Environment	2021	Total 4,333 (Bacteria/Archaea 4,060; Algae 124; Fungi 149)
Freshwater Bioresources Culture Collection	FBCC	Ministry of Environment	2016	Total 21,124 (Bacteria/Archaea 15,849; Fungi 3,725; Algae 1,550)
Korean Agricultural Culture Collection	KACC	Rural Development Administration	1995	Total 26,562 (Bacteria 13,104; Molds 9,002 ; Mushroom 4,867; Yeasts 611)
Korean Culture collection of Aquatic Microorganisms	KoCAM	Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries	2002	Total 6,843 (Bacteria 6,843)
Korean Collection for Type Culture	KCTC	Minstry of Science and ICT	1985	Total 35,524 (Bacteria/Archaea 23,838 ; Molds 5,541; Yeasts 3,073; Microalgae 1,887 ; Plant cell lines 962 ; Animal cell lines 223)
Korean Veterinary Culture Collection	KVCC	Minsitry of Agricultrue, Food and Rural Affairs	2008	Total 10,591 (Bacteria 8,347; Antiserum 322; Virus 987; Plasmid 141; etc)
Marine BioBank (National Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korea)	MABIK	Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries	2019	Total 9,192 (Bacteria 8,037; Fungi 936; Microalgae 219)
National Culture Collection for Pathogen	NCCP	Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency	2004	Total 7,944 (Bacteria 6,395; Fungi 716; Virus 519; Derivatives 314)
Wildlife Biological Resources Bank	NIBR Biobank	Ministry of Environment	2010	Total 24,802 (Bacteria 12,347; Fungi 11,535; Algae 920)

Sharma A, Shouche Y. Microbial Culture Collection (MCC) and International Depositary Authority (IDA) at National Centre for Cell Science, Pune. Indian J Microbiol. 2014;54(2):129–133. doi: 10.1007/s12088-014-0447-y.

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