Brief Detail about ITCC, MTCC, and ATCC | Microbe culture collections | bizbotany

 ITCC( Indian Type Culture Collection)

The Indian type culture collection(ITCC), was established in 1936 in the division of mycology and plant pathology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi with a view to furnish the knowledge on living fungi. ITCC is an affiliate member of the World Federation of Culture Collection(WFCC) and is registered with the World Data Center for Microorganisms(WDCM). 

ITCC is an oldest culture collection of the country, is located in the division of plant pathology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. and is known for national respiratory for maintenance, supply and identification of fungal cultures. Research institutes of ICAR, CSIR, ICMR, state agricultural universities(SAUs), traditional universities, national and multinational companies dealing with fungal cultures are the regular clients and beneficiaries of the dedicated services provided by the ITCC. The beneficiaries of ITCC are not only from India but also from the countries like Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka,Germany, France, UK and USA. The main objectives of ITCC are to act as a respiratory, to supply authentic fungal cultures and identification of fungi as well as to provide related services to farmers, technocrats and scientists working in research institutions, universities and industries for teaching, demonstration and investigation purposes to mycologists and plant pathologists thought the country.

Activities

1. Conservation, preservation and maintenance.
2. Identification services of fungal cultures.
3. Supply and deposition of authentic fungal cultures.
4. Taxonomic Investigations.
5. Documentation of fungal cultures.

MTCC( Microbial Type Culture Collection and Gene Bank)

The Microbial Type Culture Collection and Gene Bank(MTCC), a national facility established in 1986 is the funded jointly by Department of Biotechnology(DBT) and The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR), Government of India. The MTCC housed at the Institute of Microbial Technology(IMTECH), Chandigarh, has established itself as a distinguished culture collection center for microbial resource in India. It is an affiliated member of World Federation for Culture Collections(WFCC) and is registered with the World Data Center for Microorganisms(WDCM). Research institutes, academic organisations, pharmaceutical, biotech and food industries involved in microbiological and biotechnological research regularly approach MTCC for microbial cultures and other microbiology related services.

Presently, the MTCC has five sections, the actinomycetes,  and bacteria, fungi, yeasts, and plasmids and collectively holding over nine thousand cultures. The MTCC scientists are actively engaged in research programs on microbial diversity taxonomy and related areas and have so far described about 100 novel microbial taxa, including bacteria, actinomycetes and yeasts.

The main objectives of MTCC are as follows

1. Ex-situ conservation of microbial resources of India.
2. To provide authentic microbial cultures to industries as well as academic and research institute.
3. To provide identification, freeze, drying,and other microbiology related services.
4. To act as a depository of patent cultures.
5. To take up research activities on microbial diversity, taxonomy, phylogeny and related areas in microbiology.

ATCC( American Type Culture Collection)

ATCC is a private, non-profit, global biological resource center and standards organization that provides scientists with the bio materials and resources they need to conduct critical life science research.

ATCC Standards 

ATCC reference material are cited as standards by agencies such as the US food and drug administration, the US department of agriculture, the clinical laboratory standard institute and the world health organisation.

ATCC Collection Holdings

ATCC collection include a wide range of biological materials for research including.

1. More than three thousand four hundred continuous cell lines available by species,tissues/disease types and signaling pathways
2. Tumor cell and molecular panels for cancer research annotatedwith gene mutations and molecular profiles.
3. Microbial panels for research related to infectious disease, antibiotic-resistant, food and environmental testing and population studies. 
4. Over 18,000 bacterial strains useful in industry applications, assay development, quality control and environmental studies.
5. More than 3,000 human and animal viruses isolated from various sources.
6. Taxonomically  diverse protists including parasites, protozoa and algae.
7. More than 1,000 genomic and synthetic nucleic acids as well as certified reference materials. 
8. Over 500 microbial culture recommended as quality control reference strains.