CoSMi
The Collection
of Sea Microorganisms
Leflet
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CoSMi | OGS
The Collection of
Sea Microorganisms
The Collection of Sea Microorganisms, CoSMi, is maintained in the Oceanography Section of the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics – OGS and is one of the few Italian collections specialising in marine microalgae. It is part of the largest Italian microbial resource infrastructure, MIRRI.IT (opens in new tab), which coordinates the main Italian microbial collections and is the Italian node of the European MIRRI-ERIC (opens in new tab) infrastructure. CosMi is also part of the World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC (opens in new tab)), and the European Culture Collections’ Organisation (ECCO (opens in new tab)).
It maintains over 100 strains of autotrophic unicellular eukaryotes, isolated mainly from the Gulf of Trieste (northern Adriatic Sea, Mediterranean Sea), including potentially toxic and non-toxic dinoflagellates, diatoms responsible for blooms, coccolithophores, and flagellates, which can represent a source of genetic diversity to be studied and preserved.
CoSMi’s main mission is to isolate microalgae, maintain them in culture, and identify them at species level using morphological and genetic methods. These strains are then made available for scientific purposes to promote collaboration and networking at national and international levels and are also provided to various industrial sectors such as aquaculture, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, energy, and ecotoxicology.
Finally, the CoSMi team is active in disseminating and communicating information on the biodiversity of microorganisms, particularly microalgae, and their importance for the marine environment.
