When providing bacterial cells for sequencing, what is the best form to provide?

Generally, bacterial forms include: plate cultures, stab cultures, glycerol stocks, or fresh liquid cultures. We recommend sending stab cultures or fresh liquid cultures.Plate cultures are particularly inconvenient for shipping; we often receive plate cultures where the petri dish has broken during transit, rendering the sample unusable and requiring the client to resend. This wastes time and the client's sample. If it is a very important sample for the client, the consequences are even more significant. Glycerol stocks are prone to contamination.
When preparing stab cultures, add agar medium to a 1.5 ml tube, and stab the bacteria into the agar medium (solid) using a toothpick. Incubate at 37°C overnight, and it's ready. Stab cultures can be stored at 4°C for several months, are less prone to contamination, and are easy to ship.