UNISS

University of Sassari

Associated Member

The MBDS-UNISSCC is the microbial culture collection of the University of Sassari. The collection is housed in the Department of Agricultural Sciences and is curated by the Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology (AMB) and Plant Protection (PP) research groups.  The staff is specialized on yeasts, bacteria, and filamentous fungi. With a centralized online platform, MBDS-UNISSCC provides a continuously updated database that allows users from the academic community, research institutes and bioindustry to browse the available microorganisms (to date 720 accessions including bacteria, yeasts and filamentous fungi) and associated data. The MBDS-UNISSCC has implemented a quality management system (ISO9001:2015) for the isolation, characterization, maintenance and storage of pure microorganisms and microbiomes of agri-food and environmental interest. MBDS-UNISSCC is member of the European Culture Collections’ Organisation (ECCO) and World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC); is an external section of Germplasm Bank of Sardinia region.  The MBDS-UNISSCC collection staff provides additional external services such as strain isolation, identification, purification, and molecular characterization of microorganisms and microbiomes, provision of starters to produce safe, healthy, and sustainable food and feed, and for the valorization of agro-industrial by-products. MBDS-UNISSCC offers public and safe deposit. Prominent in the MBDS-UNISSCC are flor yeasts, belonging to the species Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Flor yeasts constitute a unique heritage of microbial biodiversity and were isolated during over 50 years of research on biologically aged wines. The collection has been further expanded with the addition of the Sourdoughs of Sardinia, with more than 100 samples of sourdoughs from different traditional bread production areas of the island. The Laboratory of AMB provides services for agro-food companies and is involved in technological transfer and dissemination of the results obtained from basic and applied research. PP is involved in the development of microorganisms for the biocontrol of phytopathogenic fungi, of molecular techniques for characterization of antagonists and plant pathogen microorganisms, and in the identification of molecular and physiological aspects of the plant-pathogen interaction.

Key people:

  • Marilena Budroni
  • Angela Bianco
  • Ilaria Maria Mannazzu
  • Giacomo Zara


Website