Microbiological Common Language (MCL): a standard for electronic information exchange in the Microbial Commons

Bert Verslyppe; Renzo Kottmann; Wim De Smet; Bernard De Baets; Paul De Vos; Peter Dawyndt

doi:10.1016/j.resmic.2010.02.005

Microbiological Common Language (MCL): a standard for electronic information exchange in the Microbial Commons

Res Microbiol. 2010 Jul-Aug;161(6):439-45. doi: 10.1016/j.resmic.2010.02.005. Epub 2010 Mar 6.

Authors

Bert Verslyppe¹, Renzo Kottmann, Wim De Smet, Bernard De Baets, Paul De Vos, Peter Dawyndt

Affiliation

¹ Laboratory of Microbiology, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. bert.verslyppe@ugent.be

PMID: 20211251
DOI: 10.1016/j.resmic.2010.02.005

Abstract

Although Biological Resource Centers (BRCs) traditionally have open catalogs of their holdings, it is quite cumbersome to access meta-information about microorganisms electronically due to the variety of access methods used by those catalogs. Therefore, we propose Microbiological Common Language (MCL), aimed at standardizing the electronic exchange of meta-information about microorganisms. Its application ranges from representing the online catalog of a single collection to accessing the results of StrainInfo integration and ad hoc use in other contexts. The abstract model of the standard precisely defines the elements of the standard, which enables implementation using a variety of representation technologies. Currently, XML and RDF/XML implementations are readily available. MCL is an open standard, and therefore greatly encourages input from the microbiological community.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biological Specimen Banks*
Cataloging
Forms and Records Control / standards
Information Dissemination*
Information Storage and Retrieval / standards*
Management Information Systems
Microbiology* / standards
Preservation, Biological / standards
Programming Languages