A culture collection of Maltese microorganisms for application in biotechnology, biomedicine and industry

Abstract

Over the years, very few studies have been conducted on microorganisms growing in the Maltese islands, and these have rarely resulted in the description of new gen- era, species or serovars. Two important exceptions are the studies on Brucella melitensis, by Sir Temi Zammit in 1905 (Wyatt, 2005) and a new serovar of Salmonella from Gozo (Vella & Cuschieri, 1995). Ten years ago, sampling of microorganisms growing as bio lms on di erent substrates around the Maltese islands was initiated. The microorganisms consisted mainly of chemoorganotrophic bacteria, cyanobacteria and microalgae. Today the culture collection of Maltese microorganisms contains over a hundred new microbial strains that are new to science and which include fresh- water, marine, soil and subaerophytic microorganisms. The aim of the research is twofold. Firstly, it is im- portant to characterise the Maltese microbial strains and describe new taxa as required. Secondly, the ex- traction of important metabolites for application in bi- otechnology, biomedicine and industry