The ATCC Bacteriology Collection is the most diversified assemblage of prokaryotes in the world, containing nearly 18,000 strains in more than 750 genera. Every important prokaryotic physiological group is represented. The Collection holds more than 3,600 type cultures of validly described species, forming the basis for systematic bacteriology, and nearly 500 bacteriophages. The Bacteriology catalog is divided into two subcollections. Please choose the appropriate one to find the strains you need.

The bacteria are useful in a variety of research and industrial applications. We have quality control organisms for commercial identification systems, a wide selection of extremophile strains from a variety of environmental sources and genomic DNA from well-characterized microbial strains suitable for amplification by PCR. (You can view these lists of specialized strains using Adobe Acrobat Reader.)