微生物保存機関巡り（25）The Philippine National Collection of
Microorganisms (PNCM): From Endangered
Culture Collection to International
Depository Authority Aspirant
PNCM Profile
The PNCM traces its roots to the Microbial
Culture Collection of the National Institute of
Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (BIOTECH)
which was established in 1981 at the University of
the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). The laboratory
then served as an in-house collection that serviced
the different research programs and activities of theinstitutes.
With growing demands from the academe, theindustries and the local communities, and with its
expertise in the field of microbiology, in 1987, thelaboratory was converted into a service laboratory
and renamed as the BIOTECH Microbial Culture
Collection and Service Laboratory (MCCSL) providing microbiological services to its clients. In 1995,
the laboratory was provided with a three-year grantby the DOST through the Philippine Council for
Advanced Science and Technology Research andDevelopment (PCASTRD) that upgraded the laboratory into a national repository of microorganisms
and was thus renamed the Philippine National
Collection of Microorganisms (PNCM).
After a year, the PNCM established the Philippine
Network of Microbial Culture Collections, Inc.
(PNMCC) with three other culture collections namely: UP Culture Collection of the Natural Sciences
Research Institute in the University of thePhilippines Diliman (UPCC), the Biofertilizer
Germplasm Collection of the International Rice
Research Institute, and the Microbial Culture
Collection of the Museum of Natural History at theUniversity of the Philippines Los Baños (MCC-MNH).
The PNMCC permanently holds its headquarters atthe PNCM. At present the network has six affiliate
culture collections (with the exception of the IRRI
Biofertilizer Germplasm Collection and theMushroom Mycelium Bank of the Plant Pathology
Department of UPLB who are now non-existent)
they are: the UPCC; the MCC-MNH; the Industrial

Technology Development Institute MicrobialCulture Collection (ITDI-MCC); the University ofSanto Tomas Collection of Microbial Strains (USTCMS); the Ecosystems Research and Development
Bureau Endomycorrhizal Germplasm Collection; theUNILAB Clinical Culture Collection and the Dela
Salle University Collection. The PNMCC also hasaround 200 individual members, who are researchers, microbiologists, teachers, students or anyone
with a special interest in culture collection.
The PNCM is a member of the World Federationof Culture Collections (WFCC) since 1983 having theWFCC Registration Number BIOTECH 620. It isalso a member of the Asian Consortium for theSustainable Use of Microbial Resources (ACM) andhas communication linkages with other microbial
culture collections abroad apart from those in theACM.
As of 2015, the PNCM has over 4000 culture holdings in the collection. The holdings of the PNCM
include bacteria, yeasts, filamentous fungi, and a few
micro-algae and cyanobacteria. Most of these holdings are deposited by colleagues from within
BIOTECH and some by researchers and students
from other units in the UPLB and other campuses.
A few are submitted by individuals from outside theUniversity. Sometime in 2002, about a thousand cultures isolated from mangrove ecosystems wereadded into the collection. At the moment several
agriculturally important isolates from an on-goingproject with the Philippine Council for theAdvancement of Agricultural and Development(PCAARD) of the Department of Science andTechnology are being identified by polyphasic taxonomy and will be accessioned into the PNCM at
the end of the project. Over half of the PNCM
accessions are from the Philippines.
Doubling as a service laboratory and providing
quality results, it has been recognized by different
government agencies and received several accreditations to date from when it received its firstaccreditation given by the country’s Department ofHealth as a food- and water-testing laboratory. The
Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) and the Fertilizers
and Pesticides Authority (FPA) currently recognize
it as a feed- and biofertilizer-testing laboratory.
Recently this year, the Philippine Accreditation
Bureau (PAB) has formally awarded the PNCM with─ 81 ─ISO/IEC 17025:2005 Accreditation as a BiologicalTesting Laboratory for 18 scopes of tests andparameters. It is the first culture collection in thecountry and the first biological testing laboratory in
the University of the Philippines System to havegained ISO 17025 Accreditation (Fig. 1).
The PNCM Mission, Challenges, and Strategies“The PNCM is the national repository of microorganisms and a laboratory that endeavors to provide
microbiological services of high quality to the public”is the PNCM’s mission statement. As such, as anational repository, it is tasked with the primaryfunction to accession and preserve microbial deposits from different sources, and also to guarantee thatthese deposits remain viable and stable, with littlechanges in their original characteristics, for a long
period of time. These characteristics are inputted in
the PNCM database, which is secure and duly
backed-up, for easy retrieval and referencing.
Despite the national repository status, the PNCM
struggles with its modest annual budget from theU n i v e r s i t y . I n 2006, t h e P N C M r e c e i v e d a nEndangered Culture Collection Grant from theSociety for Applied Microbiology (SfAM) that saw
the upgrading of PNCM equipment and its capacity
to preserve biological materials (Fig. 2). It isthrough these collaborations, external research
grants and income from microbiological services tothe private sector that the PNCM has been able tocontinue its basic operations sans sufficient budget.
Research projects the PNCM was involved ininclude screening and identification of microorganisms for antimicrobial compounds, degradativeenzymes, bio-control potential, bio-remediation
potential, bio-fertilizer potential, etc.
Apart from culture distribution, the PNCM also
conducts a number of microbiological analyses.
Clients come from schools, the industry, and privateindividuals. These services include microbial test ofwaters, microbial counts in food and other samples,detection and count of indicator microorganisms or
pathogens in food and other samples, test for effica-Fig. 1 (A) PNCM-BIOTECH Staff posing infront of the laboratory. Fourth from right is
the PNCM Head Curator and Laboratory/
Technical Manager, Dr. Rosario G. Monsalud.
(B) Dr. Monsalud (third from right) accepting
the laboratory’s certificate of ISO 17025:2005
accreditation from Director Hernani Dionisio ofthe Philippine Accreditation Bureau (PAB) ofthe Department of Trade and Industry. Withthem (L-R) are UPLB’s Vice Chancellor for
Research and Extension Prof. Rex B.
Demafeliz, former BIOTECH Director Dr.
Reynaldo V. Ebora, Chancellor Dr. Fernando C.
Sanchez Jr. (2nd from right), and Laboratory
Accreditation Manager of the PAB, Ms. PerlaBaje (extreme right).

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Fig. 2 The PNCM is housed in the National
Institute of Molecular Biology andBiotechnology (BIOTECH).

cy of biocides, microbial tests on packaging materials, mutagenicity assays, lyophilization of cultures,culture safety deposits of cultures, and identificationof microorganisms. The laboratory also welcomes
contract researches.
In 2014, of the 408 services provided by thePNCM about 48% of PNCM services was sought forby the private sector, majority of which are corporations, 31% was requested by educational institutions,
18% by government institutions, and 3% by different
laboratories within BIOTECH. The PNCM also conducts short training courses on culture collection
and related activities. On average it conducts 3trainings annually.
Aspiring for International Depositary Authority
StatusThere are several types of patents and they
include microbiological processes, microorganisms,
and other biological materials. These are central tobiotechnological and genetic engineering processes
that are gaining importance in industries around theworld and even in the Philippines. With the current
rise of Philippine economics, touted as the secondfastest in the world as of this writing, the different
industries are aggressively working on keeping up
with this upward trend. It is understandable that in
the near future the number of patents registered in
the Philippines will also rise.
However, the Philippines does not have its own
IDA to support this and thus the PNCM is aspiring
to be one in the near future. Presently, there are
only 44 International Depositary Authorities orIDAs in the world. Only four countries in Asia havetheir own IDAs but sadly, none can be found in theASEAN region even though it boasts of a huge
number of accessioned biological materials in severalof its countries’culture collections. There are twoIDAs in China, two in Japan, three in Korea, and onein India (WIPO, 2015).
With the changing times, the PNCM has survived
and thrived despite the many challenges it hasfaced. The current University administration has
recognized the importance of the PNCM and its initiatives that a building for the PNCM has now been
put in the pipeline. After the ISO 17025:2005 accreditation, the PNCM is now working for ISO 9001 certification to support its aspiration to become thePhilippines’first IDA.
Contact Information
Name: P h i l i p p i n e N a t i o n a l C o l l e c t i o n o f
Microorganisms (PNCM)
Address: National Institute of Molecular Biologyand Biotechnology (BIOTECH), Universityof the Philippines Los Baños, College, LosBaños, Laguna 4031, Philippines
Tel & Fax: +63-49-536-2884
For service inquiries: info.pncm@yahoo.com
Website: http://biotech.uplb.edu.ph/index.php/en/
services/philippine-national-collection-ofmicroorganisms-pncm
Head Curator/Technical & Laboratory Manager:
Dr. Rosario G. Monsalud
E-mail: rgm_pncm@yahoo.com

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