BRC4Env, a network of Biological Resource Centres for research in environmental and agricultural sciences

Abstract

The Biological Resource Centre for the Environment BRC4Env is a network of Biological Resource Centres (BRCs) and collections whose leading objectives are to improve the visibility of genetic and biological resources maintained by its BRCs and collections and to facilitate their use by a large research community, from agriculture research to life sciences and environmental sciences. Its added value relies on sharing skills, harmonizing practices, triggering projects in comparative biology, and ultimately proposing a single-entry portal to facilitate access to documented samples, taking into account the partnership policies of research institutions as well as the legal frame which varies with the biological nature of resources. BRC4Env currently includes three BRCs: the Centre for Soil Genetic Resources of the platform GenoSol, in partnership with the European Conservatory of Soil Samples; the Egg Parasitoids Collection (EP-Coll); and the collection of ichthyological samples, Colisa. BRC4Env is also associated to several biological collections: microbial consortia (entomopathogenic bacteria, freshwater microalgae…), terrestrial arthropods, nematodes (plant parasitic, entomopathogenic, animal parasitic...), and small mammals. The BRCs and collections of BRC4Env are involved in partnership with academic scientists, as well as private companies, in the fields of medicinal mining, biocontrol, sustainable agriculture, and additional sectors. Moreover, the staff of the BRCs is involved in many training courses for students from French licence degree to Ph.D, engineers, as well as ongoing training.

Connecting the morphological and molecular species concepts to facilitate species identification within the genus Fragilaria (Bacillariophyta)

“…For this study, we selected all available strains of both collections identified as belonging to the genus Fragilaria and the closely related genus Ulnaria. For detailed information on the studied strains see Table S1 in the Supporting Information, and Rimet et al (2016), Kelly et al (2018), Mougin et al (2018), and Rimet et al (2018a).…”

The Odilorhabdin Antibiotic Biosynthetic Cluster and Acetyltransferase Self-Resistance Locus Are Niche and Species Specific

“…Given the large size of NRPS genes and their numerous intragenic repeats, reflecting the repetitive cycle of reactions catalyzed by enzymatic modules, we used DNA chips to obtain a complete picture of the occurrence profiles of the odl -BGC genes and their linkage to the oatA gene in strains from our laboratory collection of Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus (57 and 20 strains, respectively) ( 41 ). The Agilent oligonucleotide microarray used in this study carries two or three 60-mer probes per sequence of interest.…”

Lupin (Lupinus sp.) seeds exert anthelmintic activity associated with their alkaloid content

“…Parasite material was maintained by the INRA animal parasite nematode collection 46 . Two H. contortus isolates with contrasted resistance status, i.e.…”