Created in 2015, the CSUR collection aims to preserve bacterial strains isolated in the framework of diagnosis activities and research project of the IHU Mediterranée Infection. The collection possesses a majority of bacterial strains from human sources, cultivated from pathologic sampling or healthy microbiota, in particular fastidious strains, never isolated before.

With a team of 4 members (2 Engineers, 1 Engineer assistant and 1 Laboratory technicians), the CSUR collection main objective is to gather 10 copy of each preserved bacterial strains.

In order to grow the whole of the strains, having various cultural properties, the CSUR collection features Biosafety 2 and 3 working areas, as well as anaerobic stations and several culture media. New species genomes are systematically sequenced within the Genomic platform of the IHU.

The CSUR collection regroups a large bacterial diversity distributed in the most major taxonomic clades.

Among those species, a large range of bacteria from the Human digestive microbiota, along with specific fastidious pathogens belonging to the genus of Treponema, Coxiella, Bartonella and Rickettsia.

The CSUR collection also owns a variety of Mycobacterium (pathogenic or environmental).
In addition, a Yeast and Fungi collection is starting to build.

To this date, the CSUR collection owns more than 15 000 references split over 3 000 different species. Including 800 bacterial strains isolated for the 1st time in the IHU Mediterranée Infection laboratory, 500 strains of Rickettsia, 1 000 of Bartonella and 1 000 of Coxiella.

For the Fungi collection, today the CSUR collection gathers more than 300 references (including yeast and filamentous fungi).

The Nagoya Protocol on the access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilization in regards to the Convention on Biological Diversity, also known as Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefits Sharing (ABS) is an agreement on International Biodiversity.
It was adopted at the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties on biological diversity of the United Nations, on the 29th of October 2010, in Nagoya, Japan, and put in motion on the 12th of October 2014.
The CSUR collection fits to that protocol for its bacterial strains coming from signatory countries and possesses the authority’s agreement to keep and formalize those strains in case of need and strictly conforms to it.

https://www.cbd.int/abs/

The CSUR collection uses several identification technics for the bacterial strains.

Primarily, the strains characterized by mass spectrometry, using the MALDI-TOF MS technology allowing a rapid and precise isolates identification comparing them to a database systematically enhanced with the spectra of the strains kept in the collection.

If the MALDI-TOF MS technic is not sufficient enough to give a reliable identification, the RNA16S gene is amplified and sequenced, then compared to the Genbank database.

In case of suspected New Specie, the whole genome is sequenced by NGS technology. 

The bacterial diversity of the CSUR collection comes from several studies carried out within the IHU since 2013, in particular based on the culturomics strategy.
This culture method aims to multiply the culture conditions by playing on many parameters such as: enrichment, medium, temperature, duration and atmosphere, in order to be the closest to the natural conditions encountered by the bacterias.

To this date, this process includes 18 culture conditions and a rapid culture protocol.