This Fungus Mutates. That’s Good News if You Like Cheese.

Oct 15, 2019 · 12 comments
Shawn (Nashville)
There was a French study where the milk was innoculated with brucellosis (a terrible infection) and after 18 days the penicillin in the Camembert had killed it off. They tested with ELISA then with mice, then they ate the cheese themselves as a final proof. Also if you've ever had a true Camembert (illegal for sale in the US), you'll fall in love with these fungi as well.
NormaMcL (Southwest Virginia)
Good Lord, I beg you, help American scientists to duplicate the wondrous cheeses of France! It will be good for Americans, our democracy, and world peace. I am not a Francophile in the usual sense. But I have never had such food as I ate in France. And as to the cheeses--don't even get me started. I tried to bring some into the States. Apparently I can't possibly bring in something that is derived from raw milk? Has anyone else gotten this explanation from Customs? I live in the sticks, for God's sake, and raw milk is everywhere. And cheese made from raw milk certainly did not make me sick in France. Why should it accomplish that in the States? We need exceptional cheese in this country. Having such would cut down on the current trend of worthwhile Americans moving to other spaces on our planet. It would make Americans more contented (more malleable?) subjects who have a passion for our country. It might even be a drawing card in our future foreign relations (how long-lasting can a country's current uncivilized status persist once it is known to produce extraordinary cheeses?). We need great cheese for world peace, God. Go forward, please.
James K Griffin (Colico, Italy)
"The undergraduates in his lab “fell in love with these fungi, watching them change right before our eyes,” he said." But did they taste the resultant cheese?
cheryl (yorktown)
Fungi rule and sometimes conquer.
Camper (Boston)
I'm a cheese-a-holic but also a pescatarian. I avoid meat mostly for environmental reasons - we need to minimize our consumption of products that come from methane-emitting cows - so I read this article hoping there might be a way these molds can be used to create non-dairy cheeses, similar to innovations in creating plant-based "meat." I'd love to know if anyone's working on this. I've tried a couple of non-dairy "cheeses" and they were awful.
James (NL)
It’s a fantastic application of science. I can’t wait to try a real cheese, made in the USA. But isn’t it a little bit sad, akin to taking the mystery out of love?
Huxley (Orlando, FL)
@James Totally agree on the former sentence. Nonetheless, science changes mystery and ignorance for beauty and knowledge. I think it's a pretty good deal!
sjs (Bridgeport, CT)
This is so cool. Got to love science. Looking forward to all sorts of new cheeses.
Ed (Washington DC)
TMI
db2 (Phila)
@Ed Just don’t buy Cambazola.
jifster (Carlisle, IN)
@db2 Because?
babyblue (Chapel Hill, NC)
It is possible that no mutations are occurring to get the result written about in this article. Penicillium and similar genera have multinucleate cells. When spores are produced, they are often uninucleate. It is possible that albino colonies merely develop from such long-existing nuclear variants. This process is called “sectoring” and is often observed in a mold mycology lab.