Between Centralization and Fragmentation: The Past, Present, and Future of Phage Collections

Despite over a century of collecting bacteriophages, there has been a persistent lack of interest in systematically cataloging resulting phage banks. The result was a situation in which the ongoing growth of phage infrastructures was paralleled by an increasing fragmentation of knowledge about collections' contents and existence. Over the last two decades, renewed interest in phage therapy and phage biology has further exacerbated confusion amid a rapid increase in the number of large and small phage collections and an ongoing dearth of coordination and standardized cataloging. Whatever the modalities (isolated phages or genomes), the time has undoubtedly come to create sustainable, interconnected, and equitable phage banking infrastructures. This article reviews both the history and current status of microbial collections, provides a nonexhaustive overview of relevant phage collections, and reflects on the challenges and potential of centralizing therapeutically relevant collections ahead of likely paradigm shifts caused by synthetic biology and artificial intelligence.