Inventory of living collections of cyst and root knot nematodes in Europe and their maintenance techniques (Cyst and Melo Collect)

Various countries keep important nematode populations in (reference) collections for the purpose of research and identification. As funding has been scarce on projects concerning fundamental taxonomic research or the maintenance and accessibility of collections and archives, relevant collections cannot be managed optimally and maintained (i.e. indexing, updating) properly (see Euphresco Strategic Research Agenda). The main aim of this project was to gather together experts of nematode collections in different countries with the objective to make an inventory of live nematode collections in the participating countries: a list of the quarantine nematode populations hosted in the various countries was produced. Another objective was to exchange information on how nematodes are reared (maintenance and storage) in the different collections. Due to current legislation, in particular the Nagoya protocol and the new EU Plant Health Regulation, exchange of (reference) material is hampered severely: this has an impact on research collaboration and on the sustainability of reference collections. This point needs attention.