International Moss Stock Center, Biorepository and cryobank at the University of Freiburg, Germany

The International Moss Stock Center is a biorepository at the Faculty of Biology, Department of Plant Biotechnology, Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg. It holds ecotypes of Physcomitrella patens, Physcomitrium and Funaria, plus transgenic and knockout lines of P. patens. Samples are kept in special freezer containers in the gas phase of liquid nitrogen below −135 °C.

The IMSC was set up at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg in February 2010, after the fully sequenced genome of Physcomitrella patens was published in 2008 and demand grew for central organisation of samples. The conservation method itself had been developed about ten years earlier in a cooperation between BASF and the university's Chair of Plant Biotechnology.

The IMSC is run by the Chair of Plant Biotechnology of Prof. Ralf Reski and the Centre for Biological Signalling Studies (bioss), which fund it. Its samples carry automatically assigned accession numbers that researchers cite in publications, and a barcode system gives quick access to samples and their data.

Samples are cryopreserved in the gas phase of liquid nitrogen below −135 °C in special freezer containers, and each deposit is automatically assigned a citable accession number; a barcode system gives quick access to samples and their data. The IMSC is run by the Chair of Plant Biotechnology under Prof. Ralf Reski with the Centre for Biological Signalling Studies (bioss).

The cryopreservation method itself was developed about ten years before the center opened, through a cooperation between BASF and the Chair of Plant Biotechnology at the University of Freiburg. The IMSC was then established there in February 2010, after the fully sequenced genome of Physcomitrella patens was published in 2008.