
Microbial diversity of kombucha
In the most comprehensive study of kombucha microbial diversity to date, a team of scientists recently uncovered new microbial dimensions of this popular fermented tea. In this Science Digested, I provide a summary of what you need to know from this exciting new work and how it may change our understanding of how kombucha is produced.

Surveying cheese rind microbial diversity
What happens when you collect 137 cheeses from around the world and sequence their DNA? You end up eating a ton of cheese. But more importantly, you learn a lot about what bacteria and fungi live in a typical cheese rind, that sea salt may be a previously unrecognized source of cheese microbes, and whether the notion of ‘microbial terroir’ holds up in artisan cheeses. In this Science Digested, I provide a digested version of recent research that used new DNA-sequencing approaches to broadly survey the microbial diversity of artisan cheese rinds.

Biodiversity of the bacterial flora on the surface of a smear cheese
Brennan et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2002, 68(2): 820-830. What organisms grow on the surface of a semi-soft, pasteurized washed rind cheese during the course of its development? How does inoculation with a commercial strain of Brevibacterium linens affect the development of the rind microbial community? This paper sheds some light on these very pertinent questions. [click to view the full story]