McCLUSKEY Kevin, Parsons Jill P, Quach Kimberly, Duke Clifford S
Fungal Genetics Stock Center, Department of Plant Pathology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA,
J Biosci. 2017 Jun;42(2):321-331. doi: 10.1007/s12038-017-9685-6.
While living collections are critical for biological research, support for these foundational infrastructure elements is inconsistent, which makes quality control, regulatory compliance, and reproducibility difficult. In recent years, the Ecological Society of America has hosted several National Science Foundation-sponsored workshops to explore and enhance the sustainability of biological research infrastructure. At the same time, the United States Culture Collection Network has brought together managers of living collections to foster collaboration and information exchange within a specific living collections community. To assess the sustainability of collections, a survey was distributed to collection scientists whose responses provide a benchmark for evaluating the resiliency of these collections. Among the key observations were that plant collections have larger staffing requirements and that living microbe collections were the most vulnerable to retirements or other disruptions. Many higher plant and vertebrate collections have institutional support and several have endowments. Other collections depend on competitive grant support in an era of intense competition for these resources. Opportunities for synergy among living collections depend upon complementing the natural strong engagement with the research communities that depend on these collections with enhanced information sharing, communication, and collective action to keep them sustainable for the future. External efforts by funding agencies and publishers could reinforce the advantages of having professional management of research resources across every discipline.
虽然活体生物样本库对生物学研究至关重要，但对这些基础基础设施要素的支持并不一致，这使得质量控制、法规遵从性和可重复性变得困难。近年来，美国生态学会主办了几次由美国国家科学基金会资助的研讨会，以探索和加强生物研究基础设施的可持续性。与此同时，美国生物样本库网络将活体生物样本库的管理人员聚集在一起，以促进特定活体生物样本库社区内的合作和信息交流。为了评估生物样本库的可持续性，向样本库科学家发放了一份调查问卷，他们的回答为评估这些生物样本库的恢复力提供了一个基准。其中的关键发现包括，植物样本库需要更多的人员配备，而活体微生物样本库最容易因样本库负责人退休或其他干扰而受到影响。许多高等植物和脊椎动物样本库得到了机构的支持，还有一些有捐赠基金。在当前对这些资源竞争激烈的时代，其他样本库则依赖竞争性的资助支持。活体生物样本库之间的协同机会取决于增强信息共享、沟通和集体行动，以弥补与依赖这些样本库的研究社区之间自然的紧密联系，从而使它们在未来保持可持续性。资助机构和出版商的外部努力可以强化对各学科研究资源进行专业管理的优势。
