BACA - Bank of Algae and Cyanobacteria of the Azores

The Bank of Algae and Cyanobacteria of the Azores (BACA), located at the University of the Azores, Portugal, was created in 2018 under the framework of the project REBECA-Red de Excelencia en Biotecnología Azul (algas) de la Región Macaronesia (MAC/1.1a/060). BACA is a member of the World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC - WDCM #1242).  

Strains deposited in BACA have been isolated since 2013, from several environments (from freshwater, marine, brackish, thermal, and terrestrial), from the nine islands of the Azores archipelago.  

Currently this culture collection contains 780 microalgae and cyanobacteria strains, of which 57 cyanobacteria strains are publicly available. Several cyanobacteria strains have shown to be phylogenetic unique (Cordeiro et al., 2020; 2021). BACA has a unique biodiversity and biotechnology potential.