01/12/2026
BacDrive: Largest database for bacterial information supasses 100,000 strain mark
The Bacterial Diversity Database BacDive is the worldwide largest knowledge base of standardized strain-level bacterial and archaeal information. The database is a comprehensive resource covering the phenotypic diversity of prokaryotes with data on taxonomy, morphology, physiology, cultivation, and more.
BacDive has been selected as an ELIXIR Core Data Resource as well as a Global Core Biodata Resource. Its mission is to mobilize and make freely available strain-level research data from various sources.
BacDive is an central part of the DSMZ Digital Diversity platform, hosted by the Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Bioresources and Cell Cultures in Braunschweig, Germany. With the 2025 release, BacDive has reached a special milestone: the database now contains information on more than 100,000 strains.
When BacDive was first published, in 2012, the database covered 17,335 strains from the bacterial collection of the Leibniz Institute DSMZ with information on their taxonomy, morphology, physiology, and sampling originating from internal files of the collection. Since then, new strains and information have been added year after year, not only from the DSMZ, but also from other trusted sources.
These include primary literature, especially descriptions of new species, internal files of other culture collections like the Culture Collection at the University of Gothenburg and the Culture Collection of the Institut Pasteur, private strain collections, other databases, and more. For the latest update, new strain data provided by DSMZ and information on type strains of newly described species from the LPSN database were added. This update brought the current count of strains described in BacDive to 100,866.
New look and debut of genome browser
With this update, BacDive additionally receives a new look. The new website, which had been in beta test phase for the last six months, adopts the shared modern design of DSMZ Digital Diversity, which offers users an intuitive navigation and more clearly structured strain detail pages. BacDive is also taking a long-awaited leap into the world of genomics with the debut of a genome browser. As a database for phenotypic and isolation source data, BacDive has previously merely displayed sequence accession numbers and links to sequence databases. For the first time, BacDive now displays genomic information. The genome browser feature lists and visualizes Bakta annotations of INSDC genome assemblies. Users are able to navigate through the annotated genome, search through gene features, and view information on them.
Source: Leibniz Institute DSMZ