The chilean network of microbial culture collections: establishment and operation / Red chilena de colecciones de cultivos microbianos: establecimiento y operación

According to the data available at the World Data Center for Microorganism-WDCM from the World Federation for Culture Collection-WFCC, Chile has four registered culture collections that preserve 2777 microbial strains. At the global point of view, the culture collections in Chile are in different level of operation regarding its own infrastructure and compliancy with quality standards for preservation of strains and for services provide. The absence of funding to support the preservation of the Chilean microbial assets is a key issue for the development of the Chilean bioeconomy. Considering this, the Chilean culture collections started working together to establish the Chilean Network of Microbial Culture Collections (RCCCM, acronym in Spanish). In this note, the establishment and operation of the RCCCM is presented and discussed.

De acuerdo con los datos disponibles en el World Data Center for Microorganism-WDCM de la Federación Mundial para la Colección de Cultivos - WFCC, Chile tiene cuatro colecciones de cultivos registradas que preservan 2777 cepas microbianas. Desde el punto de vista global, las colecciones de cultivos en Chile se encuentran en diferentes niveles de operación con respecto a su propia infraestructura y cumplimiento con estándares de calidad para la preservación de las cepas y para los servicios que proporcionan. La ausencia de financiamiento para apoyar la preservación de los activos microbianos chilenos es un tema clave para el desarrollo de la bioeconomía chilena. Considerando esto, las colecciones chilenas de cultivos comenzaron a trabajar conjuntamente para establecer la Red Chilena de Colecciones de Cultivos Microbianos (RCCCM). En esta nota se presenta y discute el establecimiento y funcionamiento de la RCCCM.

Influence of novel lignocellulosic residues in a biobed biopurification system on the degradation of pesticides applied in repeatedly high doses

Background: The biobed is a simple biopurification system used to prevent the point-source pesticide contamination that occurs at farm level. The typical composition of the biomixture used in this system is soil, peat and straw in volumetric proportions of 1:1:2. The principal component is straw due to its positive effects on biological activity and thus pesticide degradation. However, access to straw can be limited in some regions, so it must be replaced by other more readily available lignocellulosic residues. Results: Therefore, two alternate lignocellulosic materials (barley husks and pine sawdust) were evaluated as partial substitutes for straw. The degradation of a repeatedly applied mixture of six pesticides by these alternates was assessed. The microbial respiration and fluorescein diacetate (FDA) hydrolysis activity were also assessed. The results showed that the highest degradation efficiency was found in mixtures containing straw and barley husks. Each biomixtures tested achieved a high degradation (50 to 90%) of all the pesticides used except iprodione. Repeated applications of pesticides resulted in a slowing of the degradation rate of all pesticide types in all biomixtures. FDA activity and microbial respiration were higher in the biomixtures containing barley husks and straw compared to the mixture with pine sawdust, a result consistent with the pesticide degradations observed. Conclusions: This paper demonstrates that the straw in the traditional biomixture can be partially replaced by other lignocellulosic materials to efficiently degrade a mixture of pesticides, even when the pesticides are added in successive applications and high concentrations.