biostudies-literatureSomerville VSwiss National Science Foundation8642https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC11452379biostudies-literatureUnknown15(1)Domestication - the artificial selection of wild species to obtain variants with traits of human interest - was integral to the rise of complex societies. The oversupply of food was probably associated with the formalization of food preservation strategies through microbial fermentation. While considerable literature exists on the antiquity of fermented food, only few eukaryotic microbes have been studied so far for signs of domestication, less is known for bacteria. Here, we tested if cheese starter cultures harbour typical hallmarks of domestication by characterising over 100 community samples and over 100 individual strains isolated from historical and modern traditional Swiss cheese starter cultures. We find that cheese starter cultures have low genetic diversity both at the species anNature communicationsGenomic and phenotypic imprints of microbial domestication on cheese starter cultures.PMC11452379180575199476214419Thierer NBerthoud HShani Nvon Ah URoetschi AHaueter MSchmidt RSSomerville VBraillard LEngel PMazel FfalseGenomic and phenotypic imprints of microbial domestication on cheese starter cultures.Domestication - the artificial selection of wild species to obtain variants with traits of human interest - was integral to the rise of complex societies. The oversupply of food was probably associated with the formalization of food preservation strategies through microbial fermentation. While considerable literature exists on the antiquity of fermented food, only few eukaryotic microbes have been studied so far for signs of domestication, less is known for bacteria. Here, we tested if cheese starter cultures harbour typical hallmarks of domestication by characterising over 100 community samples and over 100 individual strains isolated from historical and modern traditional Swiss cheese starter cultures. We find that cheese starter cultures have low genetic diversity both at the species an2024-01-01T00:00:00Z2024 Oct2026-06-07T08:06:53.359Z2025-04-04T02:05:07.803ZS-EPMC114523793936694710.1038/s41467-024-52687-7