Table 1.

Classes of Living Collections

Class	Holdings	Support	Host	Community	Sustainability
Biodiversity	Type and environmental accessions	Institutional, fee based	Academic, Industrial, or clinical	Taxonomy, biodiversity, or discovery	At risk
Genetic	Type specimens, whole genome sequenced lines, mutant lines	Government, Institution, or fee based	Academic or government	Genetic, cell biology, genomics research	At risk
Research resource	Manipulated, engineered, or highly characterized lines	Government, intramural, institution, or fee based	Academic or government	Genetic, cell biology, genomics research	At risk
Agricultural	Wild and improved lines	Governmental	Governmental	Crop and animal breeding	Stable
Medical	Health-related microbes, cell lines, and related resources	Government	Contract laboratory	Clinical, biodefense	Stable
Patent (IDA)	Microbes described in patent	Government	Independent or housed at culture collection	Industry	Self-sustaining

IDA, International Depository Authority.