Benjamin Wolfe

Over the past decade, a toxic fungus that destroys cheese rinds has been popping up in cheese caves throughout New England. In a new paper from my lab, we tried to better understand this emerging threat to New England's artisan cheese industry. doi.org/10.1128/aem....

Were these contamination outbreaks sporadic and nothing to worry about? Or is this an ongoing threat to New England artisan cheese? Just a few weeks ago, we confirmed that another New England cheesemaker has experienced a bloom of Aspergillus westerdijkiae in their caves. Stay tuned for more....

Over the past decade, a toxic fungus that destroys cheese rinds has been popping up in cheese caves throughout New England. In a new paper from my lab, we tried to better understand this emerging threat to New England's artisan cheese industry. doi.org/10.1128/aem....

Another unanswered question: how is this fungus getting into New England cheese caves? Our current hypothesis is sea salt b/c: 1) salt is a key ingredient in cheese production, 2) this fungus loves marine environments, and 3) salt can contain Aspergillus molds. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28941913/

Over the past decade, a toxic fungus that destroys cheese rinds has been popping up in cheese caves throughout New England. In a new paper from my lab, we tried to better understand this emerging threat to New England's artisan cheese industry. doi.org/10.1128/aem....

The good news (!!): This fungus is easily controlled by modifying cheese aging temperatures. Working with multiple cheesemakers, we have found that shifting cave temperatures from 13°C(~55°F) to 11°C(~52°F) can shift the fungal community from aggressive Aspergillus to beneficial Penicillium molds.

Over the past decade, a toxic fungus that destroys cheese rinds has been popping up in cheese caves throughout New England. In a new paper from my lab, we tried to better understand this emerging threat to New England's artisan cheese industry. doi.org/10.1128/aem....

Based on data from the GlobalFungi database, Aspergillus westerdijkiae is not naturally found in New England ecosystems (red dots in larger map below), suggesting introductions of this spoilage mold from outside of this region.

Over the past decade, a toxic fungus that destroys cheese rinds has been popping up in cheese caves throughout New England. In a new paper from my lab, we tried to better understand this emerging threat to New England's artisan cheese industry. doi.org/10.1128/aem....

The culprit was Aspergillus westerdijkiae, a fungus found across the globe. It can be found growing with plants, in buildings, on foods, and in marine environments. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspergi...

Over the past decade, a toxic fungus that destroys cheese rinds has been popping up in cheese caves throughout New England. In a new paper from my lab, we tried to better understand this emerging threat to New England's artisan cheese industry. doi.org/10.1128/aem....

Such a delight to share our work on the evolution of a cheese rind fungus in @currentbiology.bsky.social. This is the fantastic PhD work of @nicolasleonlouw.bsky.social and resulted from amazing collaborations, a wedding proposal(!), an undergrad course, & more! 🧵 www.cell.com/current-biol...

I am also thrilled that our work has inspired the amazing team at Jasper Hill Farm to make new cheeses (bloomy rind cheese in top of the photo) with their locally-adapted Penicillium solitum isolates. This is different from the French strains of Penicillium camemberti that are typically used.

Such a delight to share our work on the evolution of a cheese rind fungus in @currentbiology.bsky.social. This is the fantastic PhD work of @nicolasleonlouw.bsky.social and resulted from amazing collaborations, a wedding proposal(!), an undergrad course, & more! 🧵 www.cell.com/current-biol...

Super grateful for the amazing team in the @kellerlab.bsky.social who helped us make alb1 knockouts that clearly demonstrated how this gene controls pigmentation in Penicillium solitum.

Such a delight to share our work on the evolution of a cheese rind fungus in @currentbiology.bsky.social. This is the fantastic PhD work of @nicolasleonlouw.bsky.social and resulted from amazing collaborations, a wedding proposal(!), an undergrad course, & more! 🧵 www.cell.com/current-biol...

And so began the highly creative and integrative PhD project by @nicolasleonlouw.bsky.social to understand if/how Penicillium solitum was evolving in this cheese cave. The frozen samples from 2016 from the wedding proposal trip were an essential microbial time capsule for this work.

Such a delight to share our work on the evolution of a cheese rind fungus in @currentbiology.bsky.social. This is the fantastic PhD work of @nicolasleonlouw.bsky.social and resulted from amazing collaborations, a wedding proposal(!), an undergrad course, & more! 🧵 www.cell.com/current-biol...

At the same time, we had been noticing (with lots of help from the amazing team of cheesemakers and affineurs!) that in the Jasper Hill cheese caves, the rinds of Bayley Hazen Blue were turning white!

Such a delight to share our work on the evolution of a cheese rind fungus in @currentbiology.bsky.social. This is the fantastic PhD work of @nicolasleonlouw.bsky.social and resulted from amazing collaborations, a wedding proposal(!), an undergrad course, & more! 🧵 www.cell.com/current-biol...

A bright undergrad (Jackson Larlee) in a lab course that Nicolas and I were teaching noticed that in some white strains, there were mutations in a polyketide synthase gene. The genome was poorly annotated (at the time), but Jackson figured out that the gene was like alb1.

Such a delight to share our work on the evolution of a cheese rind fungus in @currentbiology.bsky.social. This is the fantastic PhD work of @nicolasleonlouw.bsky.social and resulted from amazing collaborations, a wedding proposal(!), an undergrad course, & more! 🧵 www.cell.com/current-biol...

Flash forward to 2023 when @nicolasleonlouw.bsky.social was doing some experimental evolution in the lab with the fungus Penicillium solitum. It was isolated from the rind of Bayley Hazen Blue (was responsible for the green rind in 2016) and the fungus was doing some weird trait switching.

Such a delight to share our work on the evolution of a cheese rind fungus in @currentbiology.bsky.social. This is the fantastic PhD work of @nicolasleonlouw.bsky.social and resulted from amazing collaborations, a wedding proposal(!), an undergrad course, & more! 🧵 www.cell.com/current-biol...

In 2016, I was part of a scheme to get Rachel Dutton (my post-doc advisor) up to the cheese caves at Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont. Her boyfriend (Charlie Kalish) wanted to propose to her where they met. I told Rachel we had important cheese rind samples to collect. She went along with it!