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Microbial Genetic Resources: Status, Conservation, and Access and Benefit-Sharing Regulations

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Microbial Resource Conservation

Part of the book series: Soil Biology ((SOILBIOL,volume 54))

Abstract

Majority of the biomass and biodiversity of life on the earth are accounted by microbes, and so far about 10% of the earth’s microbial diversity has been characterized. They play a significant role in biogeochemical cycles and extend various ecosystem services. Many microorganisms are rich and serve as untapped reservoirs of metabolic products and, hence, they are potentially important for scientific, industrial and economic purposes. The uninterrupted availability of such microbes for modern scientific security and their ultimate utilization for academia and industry are of paramount importance. Despite countless facts about the role of microorganisms in the biosphere, they have largely been ignored by conservation efforts and never considered part of conservation biology and thus leave number of questions unanswered. Notwithstanding, there are many factors including climate change and habitat destruction affect microbial structure and diversity calls for a consistent environmental ethics for parallel support and protection of microbes and their long-term conservation. It is needless to mention that microbial resources play important roles in developing bio-economy. However, long-term success in conservation strategies requires thorough understanding of basic biology of microorganisms and their application through state-of-the-art modern tools leading to longer viability and unaltered genome of microbes. In this regard, specialized training and laboratory infrastructures are required to be extended for significant contributions in protection and successful conservation of microbial gene pool in repositories and natural habitats. Therefore, conservation biologists now are bound to realize that the microbial system on which our livelihoods depend is at a risk of extinction, and this requires serious attention to ensure their sustainability in nature for continuous biogeochemical processes, diversity and abundance. In this way, we are becoming more concerned with the broader aspects of microbial conservation. This review attempts to bring together various aspects with regard to the status of conserved microbes, conservation strategies, methodologies and challenges. Further, this chapter will also appraise about the regulatory mechanisms on sharing of microorganisms at global level under the ambit of Nagoya Protocol of Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) and Biological Diversity (BD) Act 2002 and Rules 2004 of India.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi, India, through fragship programme, ‘NAIMCC’ and a project entitled ‘Microbial diversity analysis of extreme/unique ecological niches’. Dr. S.K. Singh thanks Director, MACS-Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, for extending facilities. We thank Mr. Alok Upadhyay, Technical Assistant, NAIMCC, who helped us in literature search to achieve the task of this book chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Agriculturally Important Microbial Culture Collection (NAIMCC), ICAR-National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Maunath Bhanjan, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Sushil K. Sharma, Pawan K. Sharma, Ees Ahmad, Udai B. Singh & Anil K. Saxena

  2. National Fungal Culture Collection of India (NFCCI), Biodiversity and Palaeobiology Group, MACS’ Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, Maharashtra, India

    Sanjay K. Singh

  3. ICAR-Indian Institute of Soybean Research, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

    A. Ramesh

  4. Amity Institute of Microbial Technology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Ajit Varma

  5. Department of Biotechnology, Barkatullah University, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India

    Rajesh Khande

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  1. Sushil K. Sharma
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  2. Sanjay K. Singh
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Correspondence to Sushil K. Sharma .

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  1. National Agriculturally Important Microbial Culture Collection (NAIMCC), ICAR-National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Maunath Bhanjan, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Sushil K. Sharma

  2. Amity Institute of Microbial Technology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Ajit Varma

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Sharma, S.K. et al. (2018). Microbial Genetic Resources: Status, Conservation, and Access and Benefit-Sharing Regulations. In: Sharma, S., Varma, A. (eds) Microbial Resource Conservation. Soil Biology, vol 54. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96971-8_1

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