Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa (CCAP)
CCAP is a Biological Resource Centre (BRC) located within the Scottish Association for Marine Science campus on the Dunstaffnage peninsula near Oban on the scenic west coast of Scotland.
It is supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) as a National Capability service. https://nerc.ukri.org/research/sites/ and provides users in the scientific, biotechnology and industrial communities these unique services via the website (www.ccap.ac.uk):
- Living starter cultures (algae, protozoa and cyanobacteria)
- Culture Media
- Algal/protistan culturing advice
- Taxonomy and molecular sequencing
- Cryopreservation
- Patent Deposit service
- Confidential/Safe Deposit service
- Axenicity (purity) testing
- Bioinformatic data - links from website
- Advice on Access and Benefit Sharing (Nagoya Protocol)
- Training
- Culture optimisation
No other BRC has CCAP’s wide biodiversity with the strains supplied as growing cultures.
Strain holdings include:
- Around 1500 freshwater algal and cyanobacterial strains – mostly microalgae, some filamentous.
- Around 1000 strains of microalgae, cyanobacteria and seaweeds from marine, hypersaline or brackish environments. Many are used in aquaculture. Includes a collection of polar diatoms and a unique collection of small red epiphytic algae.
- 250 protozoan strains including Cercozoans, amoebae, ciliates many of which are TYPE strains.
- Algal pathogens – newly described TYPE cultures.
- Geographical diversity – strains collected from every continent
- Environmental diversity – rivers, lakes, oceans, soil, tree sap, sewage ponds…
- Extremophiles – snow, 60 deg C hot springs, acid and sulphur pools, hypersaline waters and salt deposits (although we don’t have that many extremophile strains)
