Culture collections and biochemistry.

This review describes the relationships and links between culture collections, which act as sources of genomes, transcriptomes, proteome, and metabolomes, and fields of research biochemistry that demand their support and help. In addition, the invaluable but not always rewarded efforts of these organizations as a source and conservator of organism diversity is discussed. Biological waste-water treatment, ethanol as a non-finite source of energy, Rhodococcus fascians as the source of a citrus-juice debittering agent, the sporulation of filamentous fungi in liquid medium, and biotransformation with growing and resting cells are processes developed by the authors that demonstrate some of the applications of organisms from culture collections in the general field of biotechnology and related areas, including industrial biochemistry and biocatalytic synthesis.