Monday 15th September
13:00-14:00 Registration (and poster mounting)
14:00-14:15 Opening Ceremony
Wieland Meyer, Director Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute – KNAW
Gerard Verkley, ECCO President
Theme: Research and Development I
14:15-15:00 Keynote Lecture 1: Jörg Overmann (SNSB and DSMZ, Germany): Significance and challenges of microbial resource centers in a changing world
15:00-16:00 Session 1: Advances and challenges in preservation of axenic cultures and microbiomes (synthetic and natural communities) – Chair: Anna-Karina Kaczorowska & Andrey Yurkov
15:00-15:20 Matthew Ryan (CABI, UK): Preserving microbial diversity: from pure cultures to complex communities
15:20-15:40 Joni Elsmoortel (Ghent University, Belgium): Preserving bioremediation consortia: an evaluation of cryopreservation and lyophilization methods
15:40-16:00 Perrine Portier (INRAE, France): How to preserve viable Microbiota?
16:00-17:00 Session 2: Microbial reference materials for new diagnostic tools for plant, animal and human pathogens – Chair: Anna-Karina Kaczorowska & Andrey Yurkov
16:00-16:20 Dea Garcia-Hermoso (CFIP, France): Insights through biobanking of historical Trichosporon strains from clinical, environmental, and food sources
16:20-16:40 Wieland Meyer (WI-KNAW, the Netherlands): Microbial collections and their role to provide reference materials and databases as basis for the diagnosis of mycoses
16:40-17:00 Victoria Knight-Connoni (ATCC, USA): 100 Years of collecting biological materials: The diversity of the ATCC® collection and its use as biological standards
17:00-17:40 Posters Session I & Coffee
17:40-19:00 Session 3: Microbes for food safety & security and to promote human health – Chair: Olga Matantseva & Benedetta Turchetti
17:40-18:00 Stephanie Steyaert (Ghent University, Belgium): Innovation at a cost: comparing single-cell dispensing and conventional spiral plating for cultivating kombucha microbiota
18:00-18:20 Luciana De Vero (ISPA, CNR, Italy): Cryopreservation of fermented olives microbiomes: Viability, functional and taxonomic stability after long-term storage
18:20-18:40 Pedro Crous (WI-KNAW, the Netherlands): Fusarium, the Never-Ending Story
18:40-20:00 Welcome reception
Tuesday 16th September
07:45-08:30 Registration
Theme: Research and Development II
08:30-09:00 Keynote Lecture 2: Dr Vasileios Kokkoris (Free University of Amsterdam, Netherlands): Isolating, culturing and dissecting the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal cell
09:00-10:20 Session 4: Unlocking the treasure chest: Whole Genome Sequencing of collection holdings (running projects, strategies, prioritization of strains) – Chair: Irina Druzhinina & Michel-Yves Mistou
09:00-09:20 Olga Matantseva (CCAC, Germany): Great diversity, great opportunities and challenges: Insights into decoding genomes from the Central Collection of Algal Cultures
09:20-09:40 Agnieszka Korzeniowska-Kowal (PCM, Poland): Analysis of virulence factors in whole genome sequences
09:40-10:00 Thomas Roder (University of Bern, Switzerland): Autocycler Express: rapid and interactive consensus assembly generation for bacterial genomes
10:00-10:20 Michael Ross (CCAP, Scotland) : On overview of CCAP’s molecular curation
10:20-11:00 Posters Session II & Coffee / Tour Collections Westerdijk Institute 1+2
11:00-12:40 Session 5: Culture collections for sustainable development – Chair: Rosa Aznar & Cristina Varese
11:00-11:20 Irina Tsitko (Curator VTTCC, Finland): Utilization of VTTCC resources in biotechnolog
11:20-11:40 Matteo Florio Furno (UNITO, Italy): Decoding the Plastic-Degrading Potential of Marine Yeasts: A Multi-Omics Perspective on Microplastic-Associated Fungi
11:40-12:00 Bahia Rached (CCMM, Morocco): The Moroccan Coordinated Collections of Microorganisms (CCMM): Safeguarding and valorizing microbial genetic resources
12:00-12:20 Marilena Budroni (University of Sassari, Italy): Exploration and valorization of the microbial diversity of Malvasia di Bosa DOC
12:20-12:40 Marie-Noëlle Rosso (INRAE, France): Screening of the fungal biodiversity and targeted genome sequencing to guide innovation in the circular bioeconomy
Theme: Collection management & legal and regulatory challenge
12:40-13:00 Session 6: Ethical and legal challenges of collection management – Chair: Gerard Verkley
12:40-13:00 Amber Scholz (DSMZ, Germany): The changing landscape of access and benefit-sharing: what ECCO members need to know
13:00-14:00 Lunch
Theme: Community, Networks & Databases
14:00-15:20 Session 7: Projects, networks and databases I – Chair: Michael O’Donohue & Jörg Overmann
14:00-14:20 Michael O’Donohue (IBISBA, BioIndustry 4.0): BIOINDUSTRY 4.0 – using AI to enhance biotechnology for smart biomanufacturing
14:20-14:40 Ivone M. Martins and Laura Gómez (MUM, Portugal; CECT, Spain): Microbes-4-Climate: Facilitating transnational access to advance research on climate change
14:40-15:00 Rúben Luz (Universidade dos Açores, Portugal): The REBECA network: From biodiversity conservation to biomedical and feed applications
15:00-16:00 Session 8: Projects, networks and databases II – Chair: Michael O’Donohue & Jörg Overmann
15:00-15:20 Maike Lorenz (SAG, Germany): Multi-omics approaches built on the evolutionary treasure chest at SAG Culture Collection of Algae
15:20-15:40 Adil Ennaji (BCCM, Belgium): MIRRI-ERIC: Coordinating microbial resources for research, innovation, and a sustainable European bioeconomy
15:40-16:00 Lorenz Reimer (DSMZ, Germany): Join the Strain Discovery Database! A community project for standardized data of cultured microbial strains
16:00-21:30 Social Event & Dinner (included in Registration Fee)
Wednesday 17th September
Theme: Taxonomy and Phylogeny
08:30-09:00 Keynote Lecture 3: Irina Druzhinina (Royal Botanical Gardens Kew, U.K.): Fungal species concepts in the genomic era: lessons from genera of common fungi
09:00-10:00 Session 9: Taxonomy and phylogeny of eukaryotes – Chair: Marizeth Groenewald & Samantha Law
09:00-09:20 Jean-Luc Legras (SPO INRAE, France): Genomic characterisation to decipher yeast taxonomy : the case of the Metschnikowia pulcherrima complex, and of several other yeast species
09:20-09:40 Jos Houbraken (WI-KNAW, the Netherlands): Taxonomic Updates and Challenges in Aspergillus, Penicillium and Talaromyces
09:40-10:00 Frederik Baert (BCCM-IHEM, Belgium): Polyphasic identification and taxonomy of species within the dermatophyte genus Arthroderma including A. fimbriatum sp. nov. and A. cellare sp. nov.
10:00-11:00 Session 10: Taxonomy and phylogeny of prokaryotes – Chair: Marizeth Groenewald & Samantha Law
10:00-10:20 Aniket Saraf (PCC, France): Are ITS rRNA thresholds robust in cyanobacteria? A case study in Pseudanabaenales
10:20-10:40 Raquel Silva (LEGE-CC, Portugal): LEGE-CC: A Key Resource of the Portuguese Blue Biobank for Cyanobacterial Diversity, Preservation, and Taxonomic Services
10:40-11:20 Coffee & Poster Session III / Tour Collections Westerdijk Institute 3+4
11:20-13:30 ECCO XLIII Annual General Meeting (Members only)
13:30-13:40 Closing ECCO XLIII
13:40-14:30 Lunch & Farewell