***************************************************** * * * * * MICROBIAL GERMPLASM DATA NET * * * * VOL 2 NO 2 * * * ***************************************************** IN THIS ISSUE MGDN REPORTS >MGD GOES ON LINE FOR TESTING........2 >AGROBACTERIUM ANTIBODIES AVAILABLE..3 NATIONAL OUTLOOK >WORKSHOP ON VIRUS TERMINOLOGY.......4 >NSF REPORT ON BIODIVERSITY..........5 INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE >COSTA RICA MAKES MAJOR MOVE CATALOGING SPECIES.................7 COMPUTERS AND DATABASES >COMPUTER VIRUS PROTECTION...........8 >MANAGING YOUR COLLECTION WITH CHEAP SOFTWARE....................9 >ACCESSING JAPAN'S DATABASES........10 NEWS BRIEFS AND NEW PRODUCTS ******** The MGDN is published quarterly by the Microbial Germplasm Database and is a publication serving the needs and interests of researchers who maintain research oriented 'working' culture collections. You may be placed on the mailing list for the hard copy version of this newsletter by contacting Prof. Larry Moore Dept of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-2902, USA. Comments regarding the electronic edition of the newsletter or requests to be placed on the e-mail list for future mailings should be addressed to Joe Hanus at the above address or: hanusj@bionette.cgrb.orst.edu on internet hanusj@orstvm on bitnet ------------------ | MGDN REPORTS | |__________________| MGD GOES ONLINE Another milestone toward the implementation of a computerized database and network for inventorying the microbial and subcellular germplasm held in US research laboratories was reached in October. At that time, a limited test version of the Microbial Germplasm Database was successfully placed online. This prototype of the database which contains information from the *Microbial Germplasm Database, Catalog of Culture Collections*, is accessible from any computer that is connected to the widely dispersed NSFnet backbone that traverses the United States. This includes virtually every campus in the United States and many private computers. Furthermore, the database can easily be reached from many countries throughout the world and from Bitnet nodes that support the telnet protocol. The computer system, supported by the Center for Gene Research and the Biological Computing Consortium at Oregon State University, consists of an AT&T 3b computer with 1.2 gigabytes of disk storage. This facility can be reached through OSU's campus-wide ethernet backbone from either NSFnet or by telephone modem through the campus dial-in port. Though a password is now required for entry, and the system is still somewhat "bare-bones" we are looking toward having public access available by the first of the year. To launch a search for culture collections likely to have organisms in which you are interested, first connect to the MGD computer. This can be carried out remotely from computers on your campus using your PC as a terminal or by telephone modem from any location. After reaching the Microbial Germplasm Database you will see a fill-in-the-blank form on your screen. You can enter as much or as little information as you choose, to specify the nature, location or content of the collections that you are searching for. You can use '*' and '?' as wild card characters to specify any number of any character or a single instance of any character, respectively. Obviously the less specific your query the more culture collections will fall within the boundaries you specify. Suppose you are trying to find someone in the west specializing in fungi affecting grapes. Include *GRAPE* in the RESEARCH INTEREST field and 9???? in the ZIP CODE field. This search will present a list of collections that meet your original specifications. Should there be only one collection satisfying your criteria, you could print your screen to save the information. However, should there be many collections in the list, you will want a more efficient means to download this information to your computer. We are now writing easy-to-use scripts that will allow you to store the list of collections in a file and to move the file to your home computer. There, you can use your word processor to manage the <2> file. The entire process will be menu driven and will require virtually no computer expertise. You will be able to receive help at any field, with one or two keystrokes, telling you the nature of information in the field and appropriate choices for input on the form. (You'll also be able to leave a message to the system administrator at any point in the query sequence so that you can provide almost immediate feedback on how you think the system could be changed to better fit your needs. *** CULTURE EXCHANGE When a project is terminated or a researcher leaves a laboratory, characterized cultures are often dumped because it is no longer feasible economically to maintain them. The information about those cultures has typically been gleaned through months of arduous benchwork and represents a considerable investment. These cultures may be an excellent starting point for a project in another laboratory or could make a valuable addition to someone else's collection. Instead of autoclaving these organisms, try to place them with a good home with the help of MGDN. We can put a note in the newsletter (see the note regarding Dr. Jo Handlesman's monoclonals in this issue) to attempt to help locate other scientists who can utilize the effort that has been invested in this germplasm. Conversely, if you need an organism or group of strains in your work, let MGDN help you locate the appropriate strains. Please keep your requests modest to insure that you are not intrusive on your colleagues time. The Microbial Germplasm Database has been formulated to foster cooperation and exchange of germplasm and information. Let us know of other ways in which the organization can best serve you. *** MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES AVAILABLE FOR AGROBACTERIUM Dr. Jo Handlesman (University of Wisconsin-Madison) has a set of monoclonal antibodies specific for Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58. (Current Microbiology (1990) 21:181-185). If your laboratory would be interested in maintaining these hybridomas, write to Dr. Jo Handlesman Department of Plant Pathology, 1630 Linden Dr. Madison WI 53706 *** <3> ------------------------ | NATIONAL OUTLOOK | |________________________| ATCC HOSTS WORKSHOP ON TERMINOLOGY OF VIRUS CHARACTERISTICS* A panel of experts from eight countries representing service culture collections, research virologists and biological database managers participated in a workshop hosted by American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) in Rockville MD. The workshop goal was to develop recommendations for standardization of terminology for description of virus characteristics. Several model systems were examined including the RKC code of Rugosa, Krichevski and Colwell, the VIDE (Virus Identification Data Exchange) Project of Gibbs and Boswell (Australian National University, Canberra, Australia), The Animal Virus Database, of Ashok Kolaskar (University of Poona, Pune, India) and the ICTV (International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses) Code for the Description of Virus Characteristics. Virologists working with animal, plant, or microbial viruses tend to develop systems of discriptors of viral characteristics suited to their own needs. This classification is often based on the host and its characteristics rather than on the characteristics of the virus itself. Though frequently the type of information used in the taxonomy of plant, vertebrate and insect viruses overlaps there is little standardization of terminology. Since computers, both through large biological databases and in the laboratory environment, provide a tool for the collection of large amounts of descriptive data, it is imperative that this data be available in some standardized format and that the standardization reflect the needs of the users of this data. The workshop was an effort to bring together researchers and dispensers of virus information (biological databases) to arrive at a plan to propose to the ICTV which met at the International Congress of Virology in Berlin this summer. The plan recommended establishment of an oversight body of ICTV members together with representatives of microbiological, phytopathological, and virology societies, culture collections, CODATA (Committee on Data for Science and Technology) and international scientific organizations. A smaller working group could then integrate the existing schemes. The projected outcome of this workshop could be the formulation of an accepted list of descriptors for viruses that will become a standard for database usage as well as research documentation. *excerpted from a report of this workshop which was attended by Microbial Germplasm Database representatives. <4> NSB RECOMMENDS NSF TAKE ACTION ON LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY The importance to research and the economic value of the richness of germplasm present in research culture collections has been forefront in the vision of those who have striven to implement the Microbial Germplasm Database. MGD's role in cataloging and advocating preser- vation of microbial and subcellular germplasm assumes increasing relevance, in light of the seriousness in which the National Science Board views the loss of biodiversity. The following material was excerpted from the NSB report. The National Science Board, the advisory group for the National Science Foundation, has recently published recommendations to advise NSF that it should deeply involve itself in support of activities that preserve biodiversity. The NSB Committee headed, by Dr Craig Black, and comprised of a panel of internationally respected scientists, sees the eminent rapid loss of species and genetic diversity within species as a major concern to scientists, economists and social scientists. The report states that "there is an ongoing, unprecedented loss of variety as well as absolute numbers of organisms--from the smallest microorganism to the largest and most spectacular of mammals". We are directly affected because "human prosperity is based very largely on the ability to utilize biological diversity to take advantage of the properties of plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms." There are great gaps in scientific knowledge about the earth's biodiversity and this lack of information hampers society's ability to estimate the magnitude of the problem or to effectively design a solution to it. 1.4 million species have been given scientific names but the total numbers of species on earth range to 80 million according to estimates (though this number is probably not known to the nearest order of magnitude) . The current escalation of species loss is wiping out both known and unknown biotic groups. Estimates of loss rate indicate that unless current trends are reversed, 25-50% of the species will be wiped out in the next 30 years. Habitat destruction which may be directly related to population pressure is cited as the chief cause of loss of biodiversity. Over half the earth's species are found in tropical rain forests. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization estimated 10 years ago that these rain forest were being destroyed at 100 acres/3 min. That rate is now 100 acres/min. Almost 35% of all rare and endangered species in the US are located in or dependent on wetlands. Wetlands are being converted to other uses at the rate of 275,000 acres year. Marine ecosystem, often pictured as too <5> immense and stable to be significantly altered by pollution, are being subjected to eutrophication and resulting oxygen depletion in many estuarine environments. These estuaries are nurseries for marine species and for denitrifying terrestrial runoff. Microorganisms, and related subcellular entities have been the basis for many scientific advances in molecular biology and pharmaceuticals ( the Actinomycetes alone have been the source of 3000 antibiotics since 1950). The prospects for microorganisms solving many agricultural, medical and environmental problems is vastly enhanced by progress in genetic engineering. However, microbiology is poorly known from the standpoint of species diversity and systematics. Microorganisms constitute "biological bridges between trophic levels, between abiotic and biotic factors, and between the biogeosphere and the gaseous atmospheric constituents". For example, mychorrhizal hyphae mediate interactions in plant communities by transferring nutrients between plant species. Microorganisms are also an important source of "greenhouse gases" that profoundly affect climate but little is known about that aspect of ecology. The lack of knowledge about microbial ecology and microbial species diversity is seen as a result of meager funding for these areas and for microbial systematics. Among the NSB Task Force's recommendations are that NSF become a leader in the inventory of the worlds biodiversity and that this support be expanded within the Division of Biological Systems and Resources, with initial funding of $5 million dollars annually, expanding to $20,000,000. They go farther to say that microbial systematics and ecology should receive $8 million climbing to $20 million. Comparable sums are recommended for information management, eg. data banks and Geographic Information Systems to handle the information generated by the global inventory of diversity. The report concludes that "the loss of biodiversity threatens both scientific understanding and human prosperity" and that "diversity of species is the heart of biological research." To obtain a copy of the NSB report see the LITERATURE section on page 6 of this Newsletter. *** <6> -------------------------------- | INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE | |________________________________| COSTA RICA MAKES MAJOR MOVE CATALOGING BIODIVERSITY Estimates are that 5-7% of the worlds biological diversity is contained in this West Virginia-sized country. Costa Rica plans to capitalize on this richness of species by first cataloging and preserving it and then making it available to biochemists, agricultural scientists and other researchers who are searching for new crops, natural pesticides and pharmaceuticals. Twenty-seven per cent of the country has been set aside as parks and preserves including strictly protected zones where local people may live and use natural resources. The Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad de Costa Rica (INBio) is headed by Rodrigo Gamez, a plant virologist from the University of Costa Rica who recently served as an advisor to former president Oscar Arias. By 1992, Gamez says INBio's efforts will culminate in the launching of Costa Rica's complete biological inventory, which will be one of the first such inventories in the world. Gamez doesn't seem worried about the $50 million needed to initiate the effort or the $20 million endowment needed to continue the project during the ten-year inventory. Private foundations and USAID have been heavy contributors. According to Peter H. Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden (which along with the British Museum has signed a formal agreement of collaboration with INBio) only 40,000 tropical species have been described. In the next ten years INBio expects to catalog 500,000 to a million species; several fold more than have been described for all other tropical countries combined. INBio has begun by organizing all of its natural history collections into a computerized database. The database contains information not only on the species themselves, but also on ecosystems throughout Costa Rica. The database also contains a complete up-to-date record of all biological research that has been conducted in the country. Thus a plant physiologist launching a database search of seed protein in the dry forest tree, Hymenaea coubaril will retrieve not only information on the physiology of the organism, but also on the the animal which is the primary means of seed dispersal (the agouti), and seed predators such as weevils. INBio will be one of the world's first institutions of this size to have its natural history collections computerized. Costa Rica has only about ten professional taxonomists. Through USAID grants, high school students, farmers, ranchers, and other non-professionals are being trained as parataxonomists. INBio hopes to bring 100-200 of these parataxonomists into the program to collect, prepare, label and classify to whatever level they can. International experts will then be brought in to complete <7> the identification. Gamez believes by bringing experts in rather than sending the collections out, his country will profit more from the training and possible long term collaboration. [summarized from Tangley, L. 1990. Bioscience,40:633-636.] *** --------------------------------- | COMPUTERS AND DATABASES | |_________________________________| COMPUTER VIRUS: LATENT CALAMITY FOR COLLECTION DATA As new genetic techniques produce more different strains and isolates of organisms our research collections have grown to contain many more cultures. The need to organize this data and to be able to locate quickly strains with unique combinations of metabolic and genetic characteristics has impelled many researchers to move their data out of lab notebooks and onto computers. The simplicity of use of newer database programs and the speed and efficiency of update and retrieval have overcome initial "computerphobia". Reliance on electronic data storage has made us vulnerable to a new set of perils, however; mechanical and electronic failure and the computer virus. A computer virus is a small program that attaches itself to one of the normal resident programs in your computers memory or on your disk. It doesn't run until that program is run. Often the program is one of the system programs that is run each time you turn on the computer. Sometimes a unique set of conditions must be met. The virus program may check your system clock and manifest itself only at a predefined date (the Friday the 13th Virus). Some viruses only cause the computer to display a message that you have been invaded or plays a tune. More recent epidemics appear to have the touch of sophisticated programmers and are designed to disable the system, and erase or corrupt the data stored on the harddisk. John McAfee, Chairman of the Computer Virus Industry Association, and author of numerous antivirus programs, suggests a three pronged program of awareness and action. 1. Know your computer and your system and its normal mode of action. Computers are nothing if not predictable in their action. Anything out of the ordinary is suspect; slow response, system crashes, or a file that appears to grow in size for no reason. 2. Be very careful about the software you share. Viruses can only come in from outside sources. Obtain software only from known reputable sources. Pirated and questionable free programs are most often the source of a catastrophic infection. Consider <8> any computer that is not your own as a suspect machine. A rogue programmer can rent a machine in a public copy shop or library, deposit the virus, and leave. That machine will stamp the virus on each disk that passes through. 3. Use some sort of scanning software to regularly check your system and your disks for the presence of a virus. There are many good ones available. McAfee says that he performs these checks daily; a form of computer hygiene. We would add one more measure of protection to McAfee's list. Back It Up. Regularly use one of the commercially available backup programs for both IBM compatible and Macintosh machines (Fastback, PCTools, et al), or the backup utility that comes with your machine. Also keep at least one hard copy of your data. McAfee has authored several programs which are updated regularly. Several of these can be obtained from numerous university machines via NSFnet or Internet by ftp (file transfer program). One of the programs, Scan, is available at no charge to many of us. The program is updated regularly as new viruses are detected. The latest (October 5, 1990) detects 67 major virus types and hundreds of substrains. Regular use of this program and avoidance of promiscuous program swapping should reduce the risk of major losses of data. While the program is available free (shareware), if you use it regularly you may want to submit the modest license fee to support continued development and to obtain updates. [If you would like a copy of this program, send us a formatted disk in a suitable mailer. Please take this opportunity to include the completed questionnaire to register your collection of microbial or subcellular germplasm or to update existing information] *** BARGAIN TOOLS TO CATALOG YOUR COLLECTION Spending $3-800 for database management software to store culture collection data in computerized format hardly seems worth it for the working collection that maintains only a few (less than several hundred) cultures. New software packages however are bundling database tools within packages that offer other facilities as well and are still considerably cheaper than the full-blown relational database systems. If you don't need the sophistication of the relational capability of dBase, Paradox and Oracle and can adequately store your data in a simple table format, take a look at some of these multipurpose packages. WINDOWS 3.0 is available with a mouse, Paintbrush (a simple graphics package), and a host of desktop accessories for approximately $150. Windows allows you to switch, with just a few key strokes, between applications that are running concurrently. It's easy to move quickly from a word processor to <9> your appointment calendar, to Paintbrush and then return to the word processor, exactly where you left it. Also included are Write, a "what you see is what you get" word processor (which looks much like WORD for the Apple Macintosh), Notepad (simple text editor for jotting down a quick lists or modifying a DOS batch file), and Cardfile, a program which simulates the storage of phone lists and address lists on 3 /5 cards. This utility can be used much like needlesort cards for storing, sorting and viewing culture collection information. Using Cardfile: 1. Use the mouse to click on the Cardfile icon (a small picture of a rolledex type cardfile). 2. Create a blank template to include the information you choose to maintain in the database. 3. Place whatever descriptor you choose in the index field. Genus species is shown but accession number or perhaps strain number could be just as valid. This is the field that the card file will sort the cards on so choose something that will be unique for each culture you wish to catalog. 4. A zz- is placed at the beginning of the template index field. The template will be carried along with the cardfile and will be used to produce blank forms for additions to the database. The zz just insures that the blank template will always be at the back and out of the way. 5. Use the Duplicate option to create a new card for data entry. Fill in the card and it will immediately be sorted into the correct order 6. Use the Find option to locate any text anywhere on the card. To find all instances of occurrences of the TI plasmid in your culture collection use the Find 'TI' command and repeat the search with the Next command until you have completed the search. 7. A sorted listing of the Index can be printed either on a printer or by using the Windows|Control Panel|Printers to generate a file on disk. If you print to a file using the Generic/Text Only Printer option, the text can then be incorporated into a standard word processor. Windows is glitzy and, possibly due to the most intensive media blitz seen yet in the PC market, is on its way to becoming an industry standard. Most software houses are producing a windows interface (even Microsoft rival, WordPerfect Corp.). It is big and it is slow. I cannot recommend Windows for a machine with less than 2 Mbytes of extended memory or for any thing less than a 286 machine (AT style and up) with ample harddisk space (just the program uses 4.5 Mbytes). The Cardfile application is only a marginally effective means to manage a culture collection. I cannot recommend it because of the lack of ablility to sort on different fields, the inability to format output or to import or <10> export data. If you have Windows and your needs are not extensive it is a useful tool to keep track of collection records. On the other hand, after considerable testing, I feel confident in recommending the following for smaller collections. PCTOOLS DELUXE V6: Earlier versions of PCTools have long been indispensable for those of us who manage large numbers of files on IBM-like machines. This program has now come out with an extraordinary collection of utilities. Not only does it make simple work of copying, moving or renaming files and directories but it can undelete files which have been inadvertently erased. PCTools also provides a file viewer which allows you to look at most word processing, spreadsheet and database files without starting the program which created them (it even makes a good guess at the program from which the file originated). PCTools can automate backups, dial your telephone, and includes a bevy of disk management, disk repair and file recovery utilities. On top of all that it includes a full fledged database management program available from a pop-up desktop menu. The database can handle 4000 characters per record (<70 per field), 128 fields per record and up to 10,000 records. You can view and edit records in a table mode with the field names across the top or quickly switch to a full screen fill-in-the-blank type form. If you don't like the default form created for you, you can generate your own very quickly with Notepad, the simple built-in word processor. This means you can generate catalogs or listings with as many or as few of the fields for your culture collection database as you require. Records can be sorted on any field. The Select Records option allows you to select records based on the contents of up to eight fields by filling in a simple form. You can use wildcards and ranges to make the selection as narrow as you choose. If you've set up your fields properly you could print, for example, all Xanthomonas cultures isolated from southern Louisiana that are due for transfer and list the medium of choice. You can transfer selected records to another database if you choose to have a subset of your records, or append records from an outside source. Setting up a PCTools database is simple. Plan first. Decide how the culture collection data will be used and how you want to be able to sort and present it. Though the database can be changed later, going back and entering additional data that could easily have been included early on, is time consuming and error prone. Select Databases from the Desktop Menu. Then when asked for the name of a database, select NEW. This places you immediately into the Field Editor where you can define your column headings. The field types are Character (most alphanumeric data), Numeric (numbers on which you might want to perform some mathematical function), Date, and Logical, (yes or no, true or false). Decide on column widths and when all fields are defined, save the file. You can start entering records immediately. If you outgrow this database, all records are compatible with the dBase language and <11> thus can be easily imported into dbase IV, Foxbase or the multitude of other full size db management systems. PCTools Deluxe, is worth the modest cost of $80 (mail order) if you were to use nothing but the database. Couple that with the ability to resurrect deleted and corrupted files, repair (automatically most of the time) scrambled harddisks (what is the value of the hours spent in filling your harddisk?) and to easily make full and incremental backups of your data (even that can be done without you there); the package is a bargain. [If you have specific questions about setting up these programs, write us or email to hanusj@bionette.cgrb.orst.edu. The next Newsletter will cover using WordPerfect as a Culture Collection Management Tool.] *** US SCIENTISTS ACCESS JAPAN'S DATABASES. NSF, in conjunction with Japan's National Center for Science Information System (NACIS) is offering US scientists access to nine of Japan's online databases. The databases include abstracts of research currently in progress, abstracts of conferences in science and technology, bibliographies of dissertations, and a directory of Japanese databases. Researchers may ask that searches be carried out for them or they may carry them out themselves at terminals located at NSF and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. The service is not available via NSFnet. For more information contact NACIS Search Operator, Room 416-A, National Science Foundation. Washington, DC 20550. 202/357-7278 *** ------------------ | NEWS BRIEFS | |__________________| SHORT CUT TO PLANT CLONING DEVELOPED IN NEPAL. Standard cloning of plants requires transferring plant cells into medium to multiply to the shoot stage, waiting for the new shoots to develop roots, then planting the small rooted plants. A research team at the National Herbarium and Plant Laboratory in Godawari, Nepal has developed a non-sterile sand rooting technique in which rootless shoots are planted in sand beds and covered with polyethylene sheeting. The scientists report success with crop plants such as potato as well as with ornamentals. (Asia Technology 8/90) *** <12> ENGINEERED ORGANISMS AND GENE EXCHANGE IN THE ENVIRONMENT. Dissemination of antibiotic resistance characteristics, which were formerly rare in natural populations and development of strains of engineered organisms for release into the environment have focused attention on possible genetic interchange among bacteria in their natural habitats. Genetic Transfer in the Environment (Stuart B. Levy and Robert V. Miller, McGraw-Hill, New York 1989. 434 pp $54.95 (ISBN 0-07-1037290) is one of the first attempts to examine and evaluate this exchange of genetic information in natural populations of bacteria. The book is reviewed in Bioscience July/August 1990 *** FUSION OF GENES FROM BACTERIA AND VIRUSES TO YIELD POTENT BIOCONTROL AGENTS. Insect viruses are highly specific in host recognition yet only certain strains of bacteria produce effective insect toxins. Natarajan Sirasubramanian (Univ. of California, Riverside) has proposed to "combine the host recognition proteins of the virus with the toxin of the bacteria". The entomologists have deduced the structure of two viral host recognition proteins and four of the bacterial genes which produce insect toxins. The group has received a $253,000 grant to develop the microbial biocontrol agent. *** AMMONIA PRODUCING ALGAE BOOST RICE YIELD. Genetically manipulated blue-green algae from ponds was found to increase rice growth as much as added commercial fertilizer. USDA scientist at Univ. of Florida have found that the mutant strains produce NH3 as long as nearby plants utilize it. (Genetic Engineering News 6/90). *** KURTZMAN RECEIVES CULTURE COLLECTION AWARD. Cletus P. Kurtzman, curator of the yeast collection of the USDA's Northern Research Center in Peoria, IL was given the J. Roger Porter Award. Kurtzman has been a leader in the application of molecular techniques to yeast taxonomy. The award was established by the US Federal Culture Collection and the American Society for Microbiology. (Bioscience 8/90 *** DISCOVERER OF SUPPRESSOR-MUTATOR (spm) ELEMENT IN MAIZE HONORED. King-Chuen Chow who discovered the transposable spm in maize became the first Barbara McClintock Fellow of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. *** NSF FUNDS $7.2 MILLION FACILITY FOR MICROBIAL PROCESSES. Montana State University at Bozeman, will be the site of the Center for Interfacial Microbial Process Engineering which will focus on environmental biotechnology. *** <13> ------------------- | NEW PRODUCTS | i___________________| MEMORY RESIDENT BIBLIOGRAPHY PROGRAM RUNS WITH WORD PROCESSOR. GET-A-REF is a reference handler for MS-DOS microcomputers. It is memory resident allowing the user access to reference materials while using a word processor and can incorporate full formatted references. Reference files are ASCII and can be downloaded directly from online databases such as BIOSIS and MEDLINE. Contact DataAid, Inc. P.O. Box 8865, Madison, WI 53708-8865. 608/258-7767. *** FREE LITERATURE Two volumes, The Catalog and Handbook for the Cell Culture Scientist and New Products for Insect Cell Culture are available from JRH Biosciences; P.O. Box 14848 Lenexa, KS 66215-0848. Cell Culture on Millipore Membranes, a booklet with 60 references and brief abstracts is available from Millipore Corp. 80 Ashby Rd. Bedford, MA 01730. 800/225-1380. The ATCC recombinant DNA Materials Listing is a 128 page book containing cloning vectors, hosts, cloned inserts and libraries that appeared in ATCC Catalog of Recombinant DNA Collections, plus 250 items that have been added since it was originally published in 1986. It includes more than 800 recombinant DNA items. Free to US customers. ATCC/Marketing NR 30; 12301 Parklawn Drive; Rockville, MD 20852-1776. 301/881/2600. Loss of Biological Diversity: A Global Crisis Requiring International Solutions, (NSB-89-171) is available from Forms and Publications, National Science Foundation, Washington, DC, 20550 (302)357-7861). The 20 page report is abundantly documented and could serve as a source book for a short course or symposium in the area. While authored by distinguished scientists, it is not overly technical and would make and excellent resource for economists and social scientists who wish to broaden their understanding of these complex issues (see related article in this newsletter). *** <14> PLEASE TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO FILL IN THIS QUESTIONNAIRE. IT CAN BE FILLED IN WITH YOUR SYSTEM'S TEXT EDITOR AND SENT BY REPLY E-MAIL, OR DOWNLOADED, PRINTED AND SENT BY SURFACE MAIL. ( DATA ENTRY POINTS ARE MARKED BY '>'. YOU CAN SAVE TIME BY USING YOUR EDITOR'S 'FIND' TO JUMP FORWARD TO EACH BLANK TO BE COMPLETED ) DATA FROM ALL COLLECTIONS ARE IMPORTANT IN MGD, REGARDLESS OF SIZE. addresses are: e-mail hanusj@bionette.cgrb.orst.edu on internet hanusj@orstvm on bitnet Surface mail F. Joe Hanus Microbial Germplasm Database Dept. of Botany and Plant Pathology Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331, USA _________________________________________________________________________ MICROBIOLOGICAL AND SUBCELLULAR GERMPLASM COLLECTIONS NAME> DEPT> INSTITUTION> ADDRESS> CITY> STATE> POSTAL CODE> COUNTRY> PHONE NO> ELECTRONIC MAIL ADDRESS> FAX NUMBER> 1. How many (please give numbers, even if they are approximate) different cultures of each group are in your collection? > Fastidious Procaryotes > Bacteria > Fungi > Endo/Ecto-mycorrhizae > Protozoa > Algae > Nematodes > Plasmids > Cloning Vectors > Cloned genes, libraries > Plant viruses > Mycoviruses > Phage > Cloned MCA's > Antisera > Viroids > Satellite nucleic acids > Other nucleic acids 2. Is your collection centered around particular organisms or groups, > No > Yes (Which group?) 3. What is the principal research interest of your laboratory? > 4. How many unique sequenced genes or DNA segments (fragments) are included in your collection? > 5. What proportion of your collection is used for: > Research > Teaching > Other 6. Do you receive funds specifically for the support of your collection? > Yes > No 7. Do you provide cultures to other scientists? > Yes > No Do you charge? > Yes > No 8. a. Do you maintain documentation for each accession? > Yes > No b. In computer format? > Yes > No 9. If you answered NO to 8b; a. Are you interested in developing such a system? > Yes > No b. Constraints against computerizing? > time/labor > funding > no computer > not needed 10. If you answered YES to 8b: a. Type of computer > Macintosh > IBM compatible > Other (specify please) b. What program do you use to catalog your collection? > c. Is your computer used for telecommunication? > Yes > No If yes for what purposes? > electronic mail > local area network > bibliographic/genetic databases > national networks (internet, bitnet) other(please specify)> 11. List the specific main headings of information recorded for each accession in your documentation for your collection.(e.g. genus, species, host, geographical location of isolation, etc.) > 12. a. Would you find a directory of laboratories compiled from this survey useful? > Yes > No b. If online? > Yes > No c. What uses would such a directory have in your work? > 13. PLEASE LIST NAMES OF COLLEGUES AT YOUR INSTITUTION WHO MAINTAIN COLLECTIONS. (OR GIVE THEM A COPY OF THIS QUESTIONNAIRE) >