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   John Carlos Baez (johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Thursday, 18-Jan-2024 07:20:33 JST John Carlos Baez

   Camembert is an endangered species! It relies on a mold that had lost the ability to reproduce sexually... and now, thanks to inbreeding, this mold has also lost the ability to reproduce using spores. Roquefort is also in trouble, but for Camembert it's worse:

   "The world over, this other symbol of French gastronomy is inoculated exclusively with one single strain of Penicillium camemberti, a white mutant that was selected for Brie cheeses in 1898 and Camemberts in 1902.

   The problem is that ever since then the strain has been replicated by vegetative propagation only. Until the 1950s, Camemberts still had grey, green or in some cases orange-tinged moulds on their surface. But the industry was not fond of these colours, considering them unappealing, and staked everything on the albino strain of P. camemberti, which is completely white and moreover has a silky texture. This is how Camembert acquired its now-characteristic pure white rind.

   Year after year, generation after generation, the albino strain of P. camemberti, which was already incapable of sexual reproduction, lost its ability to produce asexual spores. As a result it is now very difficult for the entire industry to obtain enough P. camemberti spores to inoculate their production of the famous Norman cheese.

   Worse still, while the Roquefort PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) standard retains a degree of microbial biodiversity, the PDO specifications for Camembert require farmers and other producers to use P. camemberti exclusively."

   What to do about it? Switch to eating American cheese, or Velveeta? Read on....

   (1/2)

   • GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
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     John Carlos Baez (johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Thursday, 18-Jan-2024 07:20:44 JST John Carlos Baez

     in reply to

     "To compensate for the shortcomings caused by its degeneration, some cheese makers resort to supplementing P. camemberti with a second species of fungi: Geotrichum candidum, also selected for its white, cottony texture.

     So what can be done to save Camembert? Should producers return to a “wild” population, similar to P. camemberti, and restart the long process of domestication? Could they resort to genome editing technologies in order to counter the accumulation of mutations or the loss of specific genes with a given desirable function? “People in the industry sometimes ask us whether it’s possible to modify a gene and allow a strain to sporulate in greater quantities,” Giraud reveals, quickly adding that this would not solve the problem: “Genome editing is another form of selection. What we need today is the diversity provided by sexual reproduction between individuals with different genomes.”

     A species that is genetically similar to P. camemberti, called Penicillium biforme, also found in cheese because it is naturally present in raw milk, possesses an incredible genetic and phenotypic diversity. This opens up the possibility of inoculating Camemberts and Bries with P. biforme. If cheese lovers want to keep enjoying these products, they will have to learn to appreciate greater diversity in flavour, colour and texture, perhaps even among cheeses from a single source. And, who knows, thereby contribute to enriching our gastronomic heritage."

     Below you can see P. camemberti, which is white, and P. biforme, which is green. Look yummy?

     I got all this from here, where you can also read about the Roquefort crisis:

     https://news.cnrs.fr/articles/french-cheese-under-threat

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