Significance and management of acetic acid bacteria culture collections

Acetic acid bacteria (AAB) are obligate aerobic microorganisms
which have large significance in human life. Traditionally, AAB species
have been used to produce fermented food and beverages thanks to
their ability to oxidize ethanol to acetic acid. Moreover, in the last
decades, they have been extensively investigated for other industrial
biotechnology applications as the development of processes for highvalue
products or biosensors. The potential exploitation of AAB diversity
requires the existence of microbial culture collections, which are
able to supply not only strains but essential data for fundamental
microbial research. Therefore, microbial collections can be helpful to
provide critical insights into AAB physiology and metabolism as well as
integrate sequence data with transcriptional and functional studies to
better define complex traits and develop new potential microbial
processes.
This article reviews the significance of microbial collections, with an
overview of the well-known European Biological Resources Centers
(BRCs) collecting AAB, and provides an insight into their cultivability and
metabolic activity. It also discusses appropriate techniques in preserving
authentic strains, quality control implications, databases and BRC networking
as well as connections among collections and stakeholders.