This grant supports the continued development of the Microbial Germplasm Database (MGD) which aids in the sharing and preservation of microbial germplasm by providing needed information resources. Microbial germplasm is used in genetic engineering, ecology, medicine and biocontrol. No single collection can be expected to maintain the diversity and breadth of microbial germplasm found in nature. Collections of microbial germplasm maintained by individual researchers represent the largest untapped source of genetic traits from which biotechnology can be used to glean desirable characteristics. The MGD has identified multiple collections containing over 400,000 strains, and this is estimated to be only a fraction of the total. The MGD provides tools to facilitate the documentation and exchange of germplasm between researchers and collections. The MGD will develop a "customer-centered" design using World Wide Web technology to replace the existing text-based interface and to increase the number of collections documented in the MGD.
