Genetic variation during long-term preservation of bacteria in public culture collections

Phenotypic and genetic changes during long-term preservation have been observed in microbial strains at culture collections (CCs). It is imperative to verify the effects of these changes on quality of the strains preserved at CCs. In this study, we performed genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis of different production lots, which had been derived from the same origin and preserved at the NITE Biological Resource Center (NBRC) for a 4-38-year period by the vacuum liquid drying method at 4 °C. The analysis was conducted for three sets of lots derived from Cellulomonas fimi NBRC 15513^T, Corynebacterium glutamicum NBRC 12168^T, and Saccharomonospora viridis NBRC 12207^T. SNPs were found in all sets studied for comparison purposes. In sets of two or three lots, genomic SNPs were found in both non-coding sequences (non-CDSs) and in coding sequences (CDSs), and the SNPs in the CDSs resulted in non-synonymous mutations. These data indicated that genomic variation occurred during long-term preservation.