MNA CIBAN Italian Antarctic Bacterial Culture Collection

The Italian Collection of Antarctic Bacteria (Collezione Italiana Batteri Antarctici; CIBAN) was established in 1989 at the Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences of the University of Messina. CIBAN is one of the few collections in the world dedicated to Antarctic bacteria and, since its inception, it has grown to include 515 cold-adapted strains belonging to 69 Genera. Many of these strains derive from the Terra Nova Bay marine area and hav been extracted from seawater, sediment, and benthic organisms. CIBAN also hosts bacterial isolates from the continent.