Amazing stuff!
Sometimes one could get envious of scientists and their work! Her is such a case. How much cheese were the scientists consuming during their work? 😊
"Microbes are critical in producing the many varieties of cheese, the taste and texture of which must be consistent despite possible microbial turnover.
To determine how historical technological developments affected these microbes, Somerville et al. sequenced DNA from eight wheels of Raclette du Valais cheese produced between 1875 and 2017.
They found shifts in microbial communities associated with process changes such as the transition to using commercial rennet and starter cultures.
Antibiotic resistance genes increased over time, but disappeared in their most recent sample, possibly due to regulation of antibiotic use.
Although strain prevalence shifted over time, the strains remained genetically similar over their time transect, suggesting that domestication was complete by the time of their first sample."
From the highlights and abstract:
"Highlights
• A 142-year cheese archive traces how industrialization shaped cheese microbiomes
• Antibiotic-resistance genes in cheese mirrored historical veterinary drug use
• Starter bacteria and cheese phages were already established over a century ago
• The oldest cheese (1875) harbored a distinct, gut- and plant-taxa-rich microbiome
Summary
The history of cheesemaking is deeply intertwined with the evolution of microbial communities, from spontaneous fermentation to modern, standardized practices. The rapid technological changes of the last century likely induced profound alterations in cheese microbial communities, yet this remains largely underexplored.
Using shotgun metagenomics and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, we examined microbial community changes in Raclette du Valais, a traditional Swiss cheese, using preserved wheels from 1875 to 2017 from the same Alpine dairy. Our results reveal that significant differences in microbial community composition coincide with changes in production practices.
The oldest cheese harbored a distinct bacterial community, dominated by Lactiplantibacillus paraplantarum, Streptococcus thermophilus, Pseudolactococcus laudensis, and gut-associated taxa.
Antibiotic-resistance genes mirrored historical antibiotic use, lactic acid bacteria domestication predated the studied period, and bacteriophage genera from 1875 were already comparable to those of modern cheese factories.
These findings highlight how human practices have shaped cheese microbiomes over time."
Microbial community dynamics in a traditional Swiss mountain cheese over 142 years of cheesemaking (open access)
Graphical abstract
Cheese ripening and storage
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