Recent advances in molecular technology have revolutionized research on all aspects of the biology of organisms, including ciliates, and created unprecedented opportunities for pursuing a more integrative approach to investigations of biodiversity. However, this goal is complicated by large gaps and inconsistencies that still exist in the foundation of basic information about biodiversity of ciliates. The present paper reviews issues relating to the taxonomy of ciliates and presents specific recommendations for best practice in the observation and documentation of their biodiversity. This effort stems from a workshop that explored ways to implement six Grand Challenges proposed by the International Research Coordination Network for Biodiversity of Ciliates (IRCN‐BC). As part of its commitment to strengthening the knowledge base that supports research on biodiversity of ciliates, the IRCN‐BC proposes to populate The Ciliate Guide, an online database, with biodiversity‐related data and metadata to create a resource that will facilitate accurate taxonomic identifications and promote sharing of data.

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(2015) Risk assessment for the spread of Serratia marcescens within dental unit waterline systems using Vermamoeba vermiformis. Current Microbiology, 71 (4). pp. 434 442.It is advisable to refer to the publisher's version if you intend to cite from the work.http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00284-015-0872-0For more information about UCLan's research in this area go to http://www.uclan.ac.uk/researchgroups/ and search for . Conflict of interest disclosure statementAll named authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.2 Title: Risk assessment for the spread of Serratia marcescens within dental-unit waterline systems using Vermamoeba vermiformis Abstract:Vermamoeba vermiformis is associated with the biofilm ecology of dental-unit waterlines (DUWLs). This study investigated whether V. vermiformis is able to act as a vector for potentially pathogenic bacteria and so aid their dispersal within DUWL systems. Clinical dental water was initially examined for Legionella species by inoculating it onto Legionella selective-medium plates. The molecular identity/profile of the glassy colonies obtained indicated none of these isolates were Legionella species. During this work bacterial colonies were identified as a non-pigmented Serratia marcescens. As the water was from a clinical DUWL which had been treated with Alpron™ this prompted the question as to whether S. marcescens had developed resistance to the biocide. Exposure to Alpron™ indicated that this dental biocide was effective, under laboratory conditions, against S. marcescens at up to 1x10 8 colony forming units/millilitre (cfu/ml). V. vermiformis was cultured for eight weeks on cells of S. marcescens and Escherichia coli. Subsequent electron microscopy showed that V.vermiformis grew equally well on S. marcescens and E. coli (p = 0.0001). Failure to detect the presence of S.marcescens within the encysted amoebae suggests that V. vermiformis is unlikely to act as a vector supporting the growth of this newly isolated, nosocomial bacterium.

The roles of Biological Resource Centres (BRCs), such as the Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa (CCAP), have extended beyond their traditional maintenance and provision of curated microorganisms to the user community. A major driver for change has been the exponential increase in metagenomics and environmental sequencing data over the last few years. This has underlined a critical requirement for molecular information on reference biological materials, which would allow better taxonomic interpretation, greater biological understanding and additional exploitation of these data. This is especially relevant for the relatively poorly studied protists (algal/autotrophic as well as heterotrophic) and prokaryotic cyanobacteria, which despite their huge biodiversity, reflected in the genomic data that has been generated, are underrepresented in BRCs worldwide. Here we describe the functionalities of the Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa (CCAP) KnowledgeBase (http://www.ccap.ac.uk), developed as a one-stop shop for quality-controlled biological material, hyperlinked to manually curated molecular, bibliographic and taxonomic information. This has been built around the CCAP live collection, which constitutes one of the most genotypically diverse collections in the world with representatives of all the major eukaryotic lineages and the cyanobacteria.