National BioResource Project

The Microbe Division / Japan Collection of Microorganisms (JCM) has contributed to bioscience and biotechnology as one of the leading culture collections in the world since established in 1981. A wide variety of microbes that are particularly relevant to human health science and environmental science are strategically collected, preserved, and distributed. More than 20,000 strains comprising of type strains and their related strains of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, archea, yeasts, and fungi are collected and preserved, and in each year, more than 3,200 strains are distributed to researchers. Distribution of microbial genome DNA has been started through the collaboration with the Gene Engineering Division of RIKEN-BRC. JCM is certified by ISO9001:2008, an international standard of quality management system. JCM has accepted endangered culture collections such as the IAM collection of The University of Tokyo. JCM continually updates the latest information of the JCM strains on the online catalogue. Efforts have also been made to exploit new microbial resources and to develop technologies for handling extremophiles and uncultured microbe.