Isabel Schober (Brunswick / DE), Artur Lissin (Brunswick / DE), Julius Friedrich Witte (Brunswick / DE), Rüdiger Pukall (Brunswick / DE), Birte Abt (Brunswick / DE), Michael Pester (Brunswick / DE), Yvonne Mast (Brunswick / DE), Jörg Overmann (Brunswick / DE), Lorenz Christian Reimer (Brunswick / DE)
Increasingly, large microbiome studies generate considerable numbers of isolates. Deposition of these isolates to culture collections is not only in the interest of open science but is also required to formally name the many new taxa usually found among them. This presents a challenge to both researchers and biological resource centers. While the former wish to receive culture collection numbers as soon as possible to use as persistent identifiers in publications, the latter do not have the capacity to process these sizable collections simultaneously.
Here we present StrainRegistry, a novel strain registration and deposition management service connected to the StrainInfo database (https://straininfo.dsmz.de). It allows microbiologists to register strains with strain identity information to be published as strain entries in the StrainInfo database. These can be linked with culture collection numbers, sequences and publications as they become available. Each strain entry receives a persistent StrainInfo identifier and its respective DOI. While this cannot replace deposition in a culture collection and the rigorous quality checks needed, it will allow for consistent referencing of the strain from the very outset.
StrainRegistry also aims to simplify the deposition process by giving researchers the option to submit further meta- and deposition data, which are not published, but can directly be shared with a participating culture collection through the StrainRegistry deposition manager. This user interface visualizes the deposition status of each strain and facilitates communication between the depositor and the responsible culture collection curator, who can view strain information, demand further data, request shipping of biological material and change strains statuses.
This procedure is being developed in collaboration with the curators of the DSMZ to simplify bulk deposition at the DSMZ and with the ambition to engage other culture collections and standardize microbial strain deposition worldwide.