The CBS yeast collection currently has ca. 9000 strains representing ca. 2000 species, of which 7581 strains are publicly available. Among them, ca. 2200 strains are ex-type strains of ca. 1600 currently recognized species. Each identified strain is assigned a taxon name from Mycobank (www.mycobank.org), an online registration system for fungal species and higher level taxon names. Strain identification was normally achieved with the knowledge and methods available at the time of accession with the oldest strains deposited in 1908. While taxon names of strains other than ex-type strains have been updated following current taxonomic concepts, it is often not possible to re-evaluate the original identification, because not all characters necessary for identification are expressed in culture. Thus, the CBS DNA barcoding project is aimed at generating barcode data for all strains included in the collection, 1) to validate these barcodes and (re-)assess strain identity, 2) to enhance the value of the collection and 3) to make these data publicly available. Sequences of two loci, ITS and LSU, were generated as barcode data for all CBS yeast strains. The barcodes of 4738 (51%) CBS yeast strains of 1351 (80%) accepted yeast species that were manually validated have been released to GenBank and the CBS-KNAW website as reference sequences for yeast identification.
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