diff --git a/bin/update_microbedb.py b/bin/update_microbedb.py
index f0faf99..df7f26b 100755
--- a/bin/update_microbedb.py
+++ b/bin/update_microbedb.py
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ def main():
 
     fetcher = ncbi_fetcher()
 
-    fetcher.sync_version()
+    fetcher.sync_version(opts.test)
 
     # We're done so set the current microbedb version to the new current one
     Version.set_current(version)
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ def argParser():
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Update MicrobeDB from NCBI\'s ftp site')
     parser.add_argument('-c','--config', dest='config', help='Config file', required=True)
     parser.add_argument('-n','--noversion', action='store_true', default=False, dest='noversion', help='Don\'t create a new version, use the latest', required=False)
+    parser.add_argument('-t','--test', type=int, default=0, help='To test MicrobeDBv2, number of directories to try downloading from NCBI bacterial genome ftp (typically 5-10)')
 
     return parser
 
diff --git a/lib/microbedb/ncbi.py b/lib/microbedb/ncbi.py
index bf91310..d527065 100644
--- a/lib/microbedb/ncbi.py
+++ b/lib/microbedb/ncbi.py
@@ -70,11 +70,15 @@ def check_and_reconnect(self):
     genomes, for each send it for processing all the
     isolates within.
     '''
-    def sync_version(self):
+    def sync_version(self, test):
 
         # First we fetch all the files
         files = self.ftp.nlst()
 
+        if test!=0:
+            self.logger.info("We are testing MicrobeDBv2, only considering the first %s directories" % test)
+            files = files[:test]
+
         for file in files:
             self.logger.info("Processing remote directory: {}".format(file))