genomic information is essential to underpin taxonomic, phylogenetic, evolutionary and functional studies to comprehensively decipher the characteristics of microorganisms, to explore microbiomes through metagenomics and also answer fundamental questions of nature and human life. the research related to the taxonomy, evolution and functions of microorganisms have now entered into the genomic era. however, there is still a big gap of genomic sequencing information for the bacterial and archaeal species with validly published names by the international committee on systematics of prokaryotes (icsp). for fungal type strains, the remaining gap is even larger. global catalogue of microorganisms (gcm)’s led type strain sequencing project is an international coordinated effort to close current gaps in the genomic maps of microbes and hence to promote research through deep mining of the genomic data.the project includes two core subprojects: 10k bacterial and archaeal type strain sequencing, fungi type strain sequencing and several satellite projects based on the specific scientific targets. now more than 20 culture collections from 14 countries and regions have confirmed to join this project.