Each hunk of Camembert or smear of brie is an ecosystem, an assortment of fungi and bacteria that turn milk fats and proteins into hundreds of different compounds. Those compounds produce the flavors, smells, and textures we love.

In recent decades, however, the genetic diversity of some of those microbes has caved. And today, some of the most famous French cheeses rely on just a single fragile strain of fungi that is at risk of dying out.

For reasons that are not totally clear, the [fungus strain Penicillium camemberti used in camembert and brie] can’t reproduce sexually, like most molds can — meaning, it can’t “breed” with another individual to create new genetic diversity. So to create more of this fungi, cheesemakers have to clone it, not unlike how you propagate a plant using a cutting. Yet decades of replicating the same individual can introduce harmful errors into its genome, [Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) evolutionary biologist Jeanne] Ropars said.

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There is a way to save these cheeses, though it requires some changes in our own taste and tolerance.

To make Camembert or brie, cheese producers could simply inoculate cow’s milk with other Penicillium biforme molds, which are naturally present in raw milk (these microbes would need to be manually added if the milk is pasteurized). As a group, Penicillium biforme has a lot of genetic diversity and these molds are able to produce sexually, Ropars said, which is key to maintaining genetic diversity.

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