Abstract

Microorganisms are essential components of biological diversity, fundamental elements which guarantee the existence of sustainable ecosystems. About 50% of the living biomass on the planet is microbial and microorganisms provide an important source of genetic information for molecular biology and biotechnology which is being used in several business applications. Therefore it is of key economic importance to collect, store and characterise these microorganisms that can be used for several purposes. The role of the first microbial culture collection (CBS in the NL), apart from research purposes, was related to agriculture, brewing and medicine. In 1930, with the discovery of penicillin, the importance of these collections strongly raised together with the awareness that fungi are great sources of biological activities. The industrial and biotechnological applications of fungi include brewing and wine making, baking food processing, enzyme productions, antibiotics, organic acid and vitamin production, genetic engineering, pesticides and insecticides development. The increasing number of culture collections worldwide, private or institutional, mirrors the need to preserve this wealth protecting the microbial gene pool for biological researches, industrial applications and biodiversity preservation.Microbials and microorganisms group several types of organisms of which the fungi. Fungi that are moulding agents of agri-food products include species from the genera Aspergillus, Penicillium, Fusarium, Alternaria and Claviceps whose ability to form mycotoxins - substances responsible for repeated episodes of food poisoning both in livestock and in humans - is the cause of justified apprehension for food safety. This toxigenicity is unevenly distributed among species within a given fungal genus, and within the same species only some strains will have it, each usually having its own toxigenic profile. The need to assess this biodiversity, which is a requirement for the safety and protection of foodstuffs, led to the foundation of specific collections (or fungal reference material) and to research into new molecular diagnostic methods. These are the main objectives of the ITEM collection in Bari.In that context, the objective of this case study is to describe and identify added values and bottlenecks being faced by the ITEM Microbial Culture Collection in Bari, Italy which is recognised as a EU key factor in the conservation and sustainable use of agro-food toxigenic fungi. Additionally, the study analyses how this large collection has been used to develop new products and supported the development of business applications in the food sector and more particularly in the seasoning of salami in Italy, as well as in yeast and bacteria of winery fermentation of Apulia Region.

Autore Pugliese

• Perrone Giancarlo

Tutti gli autori

• G. Perrone

Titolo volume/Rivista

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Anno di pubblicazione

2015

ISSN

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ISBN

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Settori ERC

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Codici ASJC

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