ABOUT US
The MACS Collection of Microorganisms (MCM) is a national facility affiliated to the Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, located at Pune since pre-independent India. Originally founded in 1946 as the Research Institute of the Maharashtra Association for the Cultivation of Science (MACS), it was rechristened as ARI in 1992.
MCM was inaugurated in 1981 by Professor VBD Skerman, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, the then President of the World federation for Culture Collections (WFCC). The culture collection was subsequently recognized by WFCC in 1983-84. MCM is registered with the World Data Centre for Microorganisms.
(WDCM, No. 561, https://doi.org/10.12210/ccinfo.561)
MICROORGANISMS
MCM is a distinguished repository of anaerobic and extremophilic microorganisms. It is a well-equipped facility having modern facilities for culture preservation, storage, and bioprospecting of microbes, especially those used in bioenergy, such as Methanogenic archaea and other anaerobic bacteria as well as alkaliphilic and thermophilic bacteria. In addition, standard and type strains routinely used by microbiology laboratories are also maintained at MCM. The microbial repository at MCM is regularly used in the biomining processes, metal and microbe interactions and industrial waste treatment.