Sources of microbial reference materials (Q9849)

Despite the importance of the microbiome in a wide array of human and environmental health settings, challenges remain in taking accurate and precise measurements of microbial communities. Challenges in measuring microbial communities can be partially addressed through the use of "reference materials," which we interpret as any physical material that can be used for quality control, validation, diagnostics, and standardization in metagenomic, microbiome, or multi-omics workflows. As members of the International Microbiome and Multi'Omics Standards Alliance (IMMSA) Reference Materials Working Group, we collated a list of available sources of microbial reference material standards. Each entry in our list includes a description, type of material, availability, storage requirements, biosafety level, species richness, and more. Due to the geographical composition of the working group, the list of materials may be biased towards materials that are available in regions of North America and Western Europe. This list is a living document, and we welcome revisions and contributions from the global microbiome community.