Bronze Age cheese reveals human-Lactobacillus interactions over evolutionary history

作者：Yichen Liu, Bo Miao, Wenying Li, Xingjun Hu, Fan Bai, Yidilisi Abuduresule, Yalin Liu, Zequan Zheng, Wenjun Wang, Zehui Chen, Shilun Zhu, Xiaotian Feng, Peng Cao, Wanjing Ping, Ruowei Yang, Qingyan Dai, Feng Liu, Chan Tian, Yimin Yang, Qiaomei Fu · 发表于：Cell · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1016/j.cell.2024.08.008 · 被引用次数：33 · 研究领域：Probiotics and Fermented Foods、Digestive system and related health、Gut microbiota and health

Despite the long history of consumption of fermented dairy, little is known about how the fermented microbes were utilized and evolved over human history. Here, by retrieving ancient DNA of Bronze Age kefir cheese (∼3,500 years ago) from the Xiaohe cemetery, we explored past human-microbial interactions. Although it was previously suggested that kefir was spread from the Northern Caucasus to Europe and other regions, we found an additional spreading route of kefir from Xinjiang to inland East Asia. Over evolutionary history, the East Asian strains gained multiple gene clusters with defensive roles against environmental stressors, which can be a result of the adaptation of Lactobacillus strains to various environmental niches and human selection. Overall, our results highlight the role of past human activities in shaping the evolution of human-related microbes, and such insights can, in turn, provide a better understanding of past human behaviors.