CIBIO-Azores researchers take part in the XLII Meeting of the European Culture Collections Organisation (ECCO)

Researchers Rita Cordeiro and Rúben Luz, from the Biodiversity and Genetic Resources Research Centre (CIBIO-Azores) at the University of the Azores, took part in the 42nd meeting of the European Culture Collections Organisation (ECCO), which took place from 18 to 20 September in Bari, Italy. This event focussed on sharing the latest research results from microorganism culture collections (e.g. fungi and cyanobacteria). CIBIO-Azores researchers have been working on the Azores Algae and Cyanobacteria Bank (BACA), an ECCO collection, since 2021. At this event, the researchers publicised BACA by presenting the latest genomics results, in a total of two oral presentations and two panels. Rita Cordeiro presented her work revealing evidence of a new genus of toxic cyanobacteria and the work of master's student Inês Borges (FCT-UAc) entitled ‘Exploring cyanobacteria genomes for antithrombotic secondary metabolites’. Researcher Rúben Luz spoke about the genomes of 100 BACA cultures and the associated microbiome, and showed the high diversity of the collection, highlighting the 4 new genera and 10 new species of cyanobacteria published in the last year.