中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所付巧妹等研究人员合作发现，青铜时代的奶酪揭示人类与乳酸菌在演化历史上的相互作用。相关论文于2024年9月25日在线发表在《细胞》杂志上。

通过从小河墓地提取青铜时代的开菲尔奶酪古DNA（约3500年前），研究人员探讨了过去的人类-微生物相互作用。虽然之前有研究表明开菲尔从北高加索传播到欧洲和其他地区，但研究人员发现了开菲尔从新疆向东亚内陆传播的额外路线。

在演化历史中，东亚菌株获得了多个具有防御作用的基因簇，这可能是乳酸菌菌株适应不同环境生态位和人类选择的结果。

总体而言，这些结果突显了过去人类活动在塑造人类相关微生物演化中的作用，而这些见解反过来可以更好地理解过去的人类行为。

研究人员表示，尽管发酵乳制品的消费历史悠久，但人类历史上如何利用和演化这些发酵微生物知之甚少。

附：英文原文

Title: Bronze Age cheese reveals human-Lactobacillus interactions over evolutionary history

Author: 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

Issue&Volume: 2024-09-25

Abstract: 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.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.08.008

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(24)00899-7