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About CCALA culture collection
CCALA – Culture Collection of Autotrophic Organisms is a culture collection focused mainly on algae and cyanobacteria. It is based in Třeboň, Czech Republic, at the Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and serves as a centre for the maintenance, study and distribution of living cultures used in research, education and biodiversity studies.
The collection preserves strains from a wide range of environments, including aquatic habitats, soils, snow, polar regions and thermal springs. Some strains represent common organisms, while others are rare or scientifically valuable isolates. An important part of the collection consists of type and reference strains, which support species identification, taxonomy and the description of new taxa.
CCALA is not only a place where cultures are kept. It provides long-term maintenance, regular care, documentation and access to cultures for other institutions and researchers. Strains from the collection are used in algology, microbiology, ecology, taxonomy and biotechnological research. In this way, CCALA helps connect the preservation of biological diversity with practical support for scientific work.
The collection is also connected to the international community of microbial culture collections through its membership in the World Federation for Culture Collections. This affiliation places CCALA within a broader network of institutions concerned with the preservation, documentation and availability of microbial and algal diversity.
Through its catalogue and related services, CCALA makes living cultures available to universities, research institutes and other scientific users. The preserved strains can be used for comparative studies, ecological research, molecular analyses, teaching, biotechnology and the verification of taxonomic data. By maintaining documented cultures under controlled conditions, the collection supports the reliability and continuity of research based on living material.
CCALA therefore represents a specialised collection of algae and cyanobacteria with both national and international relevance. Its work contributes to the maintenance of living biological material, supports taxonomic and ecological research, and helps preserve microscopic photosynthetic diversity for future study.
The Diversity Preserved in CCALA
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991 strains in the collection – nearly one thousand living cultures of algae and cyanobacteria form a diverse archive of microscopic life that can be preserved, studied and compared over time.
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Isolates from more than 50 countries and geographic regions – the collection connects local and global biodiversity, from Czech ponds and soils to polar regions, mountain habitats, thermal springs and island ecosystems.
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73 type strains – these strains are important for taxonomy and accurate species identification, as they serve as reference material for describing, comparing and verifying the identity of organisms.
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223 new strains added over the past 5 years – CCALA is continuously expanding with new isolates from current research and remains a living, actively developed collection.
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25 taxonomic classes and 57 orders represented – the collection covers a broad range of algae and cyanobacteria and reflects their substantial species-level and evolutionary diversity.
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Green algae and cyanobacteria are the most strongly represented groups – among the most common classes are Cyanobacteria, Chlorophyceae and Trebouxiophyceae, groups that play important roles in photosynthesis, primary production and the functioning of aquatic and soil ecosystems.
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The most common habitats include ponds and pools, polar and subglacial localities, soils, lakes and reservoirs, and running waters – the collection includes organisms from common freshwater habitats as well as environments close to the limits of life, such as snow, glaciers, cryoconite holes and cold polar regions.
Historical Context of the CCALA Collection
The history of CCALA follows a long tradition of algal and cyanobacterial research and cultivation in the Czech lands. Its origins reach back to the first half of the 20th century, when Prague began to emerge as an important centre of algological research. During this period, the idea gradually took hold that living cultures of microorganisms were not merely auxiliary material for individual experiments, but valuable scientific resources with long-term significance.
Among the earliest figures associated with this tradition was Václav Uhlíř, who worked on the isolation and cultivation of cyanobacteria. His work was followed by that of Silvestr Prát, an important Czech botanist, plant physiologist and algologist. A particularly significant role was played by Ernst Georg Pringsheim, one of the pioneers of algal cultivation, who worked in Prague in the 1920s. His work strongly influenced the development of methods for isolating, cultivating and maintaining algal cultures and became part of the broader European tradition of algological collections.
The independent collection in Třeboň was established in 1960 at the Institute of Microbiology of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. Its foundation is associated above all with Jiří Komárek and František Hindák, two prominent figures in Czechoslovak phycology. From the outset, the collection was developed as a specialised facility focused on the preservation and distribution of living cultures of autotrophic microorganisms.
A key institutional turning point came in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the Třeboň algological workplace became part of the Institute of Botany of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. This provided the institutional setting for the Třeboň culture collection, which had been developing since 1960. Another major milestone followed in 1979, when the Prague and Třeboň algal culture collections were united in Třeboň. The merger created the basis of the present-day CCALA, gave the collection strong historical continuity and strengthened its position among European algological culture collections.
In the following decades, the collection continued to expand and develop its scientific profile. It accumulated isolates from a wide range of environments, including freshwater, soil, aerial and extreme habitats, and became an important source of material for taxonomic, ecological, physiological and applied research. The long-term maintenance of cultures has made it possible to preserve many strains that would otherwise no longer be available to science.
Today, CCALA represents the outcome of more than a century of development in Czech algology. Its value lies not only in the number of strains it preserves, but also in its historical continuity, scientific documentation and connection to the work of several generations of researchers. The collection is a living archive of algological research and an important resource for its further development.