PLAVIT: from a collecting culture to a collection culture

Virus collections contribute to the knowledge and maintenance of viral biodiversity, consisting of expertly preserved, authenticated isolates and derived products made available to the scientific community. All the collections are developed, managed and maintained in accordance with internationally recognised quality standards. They are in continuous expansion to include new accessions in the collection. Moreover, the aim of viral collections is to promote the collaboration and exchange of knowledge, ideas and information among virologists. The Italian Collection of Plant Viruses PLAVIT (Plant Virus Italy) is based at the Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (CNR) in Torino and Bari, Italy. It consists of more than 1000 isolates of plant viruses and viroids, originating from several countries and hosts, collected over the last 50 years. PLAVIT is planning to develop a parallel collection of virus-derived products, like antisera and cloned full-length virus or subviral molecules. PLAVIT is partner of the Italian node of the Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure (MIRRI-IT) which preserves microbial collections throughout the Italian territory, and of SUS-MIRRI. IT (Strengthening the MIRRI Italian Research Infrastructure for Sustainable Bioscience and Bioeconomy), a PNRR project focusing on new opportunities that microbiology offers to cope with human well-being, food quality, climate change, and environmental pollution. PLAVIT is also a core partner of EVA-GLOBAL, a Horizon 2020 project encompassing several EU and non-EU institutions with expertise in animal, human and plant virology, with the aim to collect and distribute authenticated viruses, viroids and derived products through an online catalogue providing easy access to the end-users.