Code Names

All INVAM Accession Names Consist of Three Components

1. To conform to rules of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), accession codes can be designed to track country (or state) of origin. To that end, a two letter designation at the beginning of the INVAM accession code signifies the geographic origin of a culture. Within North America, where the greatest number of accessions have been obtained, U.S. states and Canadian provinces receive their own code designation. The table below lists the letter codes currently in use, and the geographic locations which they represent.


2. A 3-digit number is added which is unique to each accession from a given geographic location (e.g. WV 201 or WV 579). If more than one fungal species sporulates in the first-generation pot culture of an accession, then each species is separated and a letter is added to the number code to link the different fungal species to a common “ancestral” accession (and geographic origin). For example, WV579 A and WV579 B are accessions of two species that sporulated in a pot culture deposited as WV 579.


3. Last, a dashed integer is added from the first pot culture generation onward. This integer is an internal code used to track successive pot culture generations of an accession, so that we know how often an accession has been repropagated. Thus, WV579A- 7 is the seventh pot culture cycle of accession WV579A. This part of the code is not reported to users, but it can be provided upon request.