Photography by Josh Windsor<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFrench Cheese Under Threat\u201d read the report from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) on January 16th, 2024. In the ensuing weeks the findings of the report have been picked up around the globe. As is often the case when reporting on the impact of discoveries in microbiology and population genetics, there has been a lot of confusion around how to understand and interpret the science. The biology at the heart of the report is complicated. The same thing can be said of our relationship with the microorganisms that we rely upon for cheese production. Rather than sound the alarm that these beloved French cheeses are on the road to extinction, what if we saw this as an opportunity to rethink what it is that we value in cheese? A chance to not only expand the diversity of rinds produced, but also to redefine our responsibility to our microbial coworkers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But first, the science. To understand what\u2019s at stake it is necessary to step back into the evolutionary past of a white, fluffy fungus called Penicillium camemberti<\/em> (P. camemberti<\/em> or PC for short). PC is the mold that forms a uniform cloudlike rind around soft ripened cheeses like Camembert de Normandie and Brie, to name just a few. Cheese is the natural habitat of P. camemberti<\/em>, a domesticated species bred specifically to produce a host of \u201ccheesy\u201d aromas and produce that signature pillowy rind. Like other domesticated species (e.g., cows, dogs, corn, kale) its genetic makeup has been impacted through its relationship with humans. This means that the mold we have come to know and love today has an ancestor somewhere out in the wild. When we are comparing the genetic makeup of a domesticated species to its ancestor, the ancestor is called a \u201cwild type\u201d. It represents the genetic state of the species before humans affected any change. It turns out that there was an intermediary domestication step in PC\u2019s evolutionary development\u2014the wild type ancestor of PC is not its mother, but its grandmother. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You may have encountered P. camemberti<\/em>\u2019s mother, Penicillium biforme<\/em> (P. biforme<\/em>), in cheese at some point. Its aroma is musty and evocative of wet soil, some call it \u201ccavey\u201d\u2014a term dear to my heart. This aroma predominantly comes from the production of geosmin, a volatile compound that shows up all over nature from beets to petrichor (the smell of rain). Its coloration ranges from a steely gray to the purplish blue of an impending storm. These lush and tempestuous descriptions should tip you off, we are getting closer to a wild ancestor, but not quite there yet. For producers looking for an orderly rind with milder aromas whose earthiness leans toward button mushrooms and not fresh humus, P. biforme<\/em> is a pest: a defect to be avoided or eradicated. P. camemberti<\/em> on the other hand is a commercial product purchased deliberately as an adjunct culture for rind formation. As far as I know, P. biforme<\/em> is not available as a lab produced culture. In this way it is wild, however, it too is a domesticated mold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n