Centro de Recursos Biológicos Johanna Döbereiner - Embrapa Agrobiologia

History

Embrapa Agrobiology's collection of cultures - known worldwide by the BR identification code atributed to their strains - had its beginning in the 1960s, through the efforts of the researcher Johanna Döbereiner. It is one of the oldest Brazilian collections in the World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC collection 364). The collection currently has about 5,000 bacteria and 50 arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and it is globally recognized for the efforts to maintain and study the large diversity of nitrogen-fixing bacteria found in nature.

In 2012, the collection was nominated to be part of the Biological Resource Center for Agribusiness - coordinated by Embrapa -, which is one of the centers of the Brazilian Network of Biological Resource Centers (CRB-Br Network), implemented on the initiative of the program for innovation in biotechnology, under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Ordnance no. 409, April 15, 2014).

Embrapa Agrobiology hosts the Johanna Döbereiner Biological Resource Center (CRB-JD), which gathers the traditional collection of BR cultures and other collections of bacteria and fungi of agricultural importance, as well as the activities of bioprocesses, and production and quality control analysis of microbial inoculants.

CRB-JD's mission is to conserve the microbial germplasm bank, exchange biological material, enrich the collection by incorporating new microorganisms, develop biological products, and offer training for academics and professionals in general, such as in the area of microbial taxonomy.

E-mail: cnpab.crbjd@embrapa.br

Trainings

The CRB-JD provides in-house courses and training within their area of expertise and can offer specific training on demand for other businesses and institutions. Nowadays there are two annual courses: Basic Microbiology and Introduction to inoculant production techniques and quality control.

Research interest

The CRB-JD team is interested in partnerships for research and service provision in the fields of taxonomy and microbial phylogeny, plant growth promotion, quality control of inoculants, bioprocesses, development of new inoculants, and bioprospection of microbial molecules of agricultural interest.