It takes several years in characterisation and development of microbial cultures. The cultures are the property of intellectual depositors. Therefore, such important cultures must be deposited at National or International Culture Collection Centres.

At these centres the cultures are properly maintained by the experts. These cultures are governed by stringent rules and regulations so that intellectual property rights of the depositors must be protected. On payment basis one can purchase the cultures from these centres.

Therefore, for the purpose of commercial exploitation in biotech industries these cultures are very precious. There are several National and International Culture Collection Centres. Some of them are given below:

1. ATCC (American Type Culture Collection Centre, Maryland, U.S.A.)

ADVERTISEMENTS:

2. NCIB (National Collection of Industrial Bacteria, Britain)

3. DSM (Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen and Zelkulturen, Germany)

4. NCTC (National Collection of Type Culture, London)

5. MTCC (Microbial Type Culture Collection, Osaka, Japan)

ADVERTISEMENTS:

6. MTCC (Microbial Type Culture Collection and Gene Bank Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh)

7. ICIM (Indian Culture of Industrial Microorganisms, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune)