The A-Z of NCIMB

We often find when we are out and about at events and conferences, that people are surprised at the breadth and diversity of what is included in the National Collection of Industrial, Food and Marine Bacteria. Some common misconceptions are that we only stock marine strains, or that we don’t have strains isolated from soil – neither of these are correct!

In fact, our culture collection includes all sorts of things isolated from sources that might not be immediately obvious from our name. For example, two recent additions to the National Collection of Industrial, Food and Marine Bacteria were Lactobacillus species – nothing very surprising about that as our collection includes many lactobacillus strains isolated from foodstuffs such as yoghurt, cheese and pickles. However, one of the two recent additions was isolated from the gut of a honeybee, and the other from human milk.

The strain, NCIMB 15254, Lactobacillus sp. was deposited by scientists from the College of Life Sciences, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, China. It joins several other strains within the NCIMB collection isolated from the intestinal tract of honeybees, as well as a number of strains from honeybee larvae and hives.

NCIMB 15252 Lactobacillus gasseri was isolated from human milk and deposited at NCIMB by scientists from the Quadram Institute.

To highlight the diversity of our culture collection, we have produced an “A-Z” of NCIMB. It picks out a strain from our collection for every letter of the alphabet to give a light-hearted snapshot of the diversity within it. If you would like a pdf copy, contact enquiries@ncimb.com