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Direct access to the CIRM-Levures catalog

CIRM-Levures collection was established by the regrouping of numerous yeast collections: INA-PG Dairy Technology, INRAE Montpellier, Colmar, Poligny, Le Rheu, and the Collection de Levures d'Intérêt Biotechnologique (CLIB) in Thiverval-Grignon.

Today, CIRM-Levures conserves more than 4000 Saccharomycotina and Basidiomycota yeast isolates, the vast majority of which are of natural origin (representing 63 genera and 284 species), including 2000 strains in its catalog. Most of the strains have been isolated from traditional fermentations such as wine, cider, beer, cheese, kefir ... and belong mainly to the genera Saccharomyces, Debaryomyces and Kluyveromyces. All CIRM-Levures strains are identified to species level by molecular methods. They are also characterized by more than 60 physiological, morphological and biochemical tests.

CIRM-Levures also keep strains of interest for other biotechnological applications, such as the numerous mutants of Yarrowia lipolytica, or the orfeoma of Candida albicans (Institut Pasteur). In recent years, CIRM-Levures has enriched the biodiversity of its collection with isolates from collections in extreme or tropical environments, such as the Arctic, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Mayotte and Reunion. It is internationally recognized for its work on yeast biodiversity, combining genomics and taxonomy, and on the adaptation of yeasts to anthropic environments.

The missions of CIRM-Levures are :

• To develop and enhance the collection by making the Microbial Resources available to the scientific community and to the industries 
• To develop a platform exploring biodiversity for research and innovation purposes
• To develop new tools for identification, typing and characterization
• To provide services: strain conservation, taxonomic characterization, typing