Collections are providers of information not just of cultures. One of the key pieces of information about cultures is their identity. Many users of collections acquire cultures assuming them to be the same as others maintained and available from different sources. Others acquire cultures from different collections assuming they are unique. Information derived from analyses using these cultures is used by various audiences for different purposes. Each of these parties needs to be assured that their assumptions about identity or uniqueness of these cultures is correct. However, it is not uncommon for cultures replicated from the same isolate to be maintained at different collections with unique designations, not always cross-referenced to each other. Conversely, cultures bearing the same designations may not always have the same properties when obtained from different sources.

Those who are required to evaluate such cultures, especially for biotechnology purposes, need a mechanism to assure that when they exchange information about cultures, they are all talking about the same organism. Some have proposed creating a unique identifier approach for certain kinds of commercial microorganisms. Specifically, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is considering such a system applicable only to environmentally released, genetically engineered commercial microorganisms. In the context of the general problem of culture identity, this talk will describe these proposals as a means of engaging the affected communities - academic, industrial and governmental - in a discourse on the problem.