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Benjamin Wolfe @benwolfe.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Based on data from the GlobalFungi database, Aspergillus westerdijkiae is not naturally found in New England ecosystems (red dots in larger map below), suggesting introductions of this spoilage mold from outside of this region.

A map showing the locations of where sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of Aspergillus westerdijkiae have been putatively detected based on data from GlobalFungi. Each dot in the larger map shows where Aspergillus westerdijkiae. The smaller inset map shows that despite lack of detection of Aspergillus westerdijkiae in New England, there have been plenty of fungal studies across New England (suggesting that lack of detection is not due to lack of sampling).

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Benjamin Wolfe @benwolfe.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Our genomic analysis found that multiple strains of the fungus have contaminated different cheese caves (bold text = cheese isolates in phylogeny).

A whole-genome phylogeny showing that multiple strains of Aspergillus westerdijkiae have invaded different cheese caves. Cheese isolates are shown in bold text.

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Benjamin Wolfe @benwolfe.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Over the past decade, a toxic fungus that destroys cheese rinds has been popping up in cheese caves throughout New England. In a new paper from my lab, we tried to better understand this emerging threat to New England's artisan cheese industry. doi.org/10.1128/aem....

Cheese rinds contaminated with Aspergillus westerdijkiae

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Benjamin Wolfe @benwolfe.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

I am also thrilled that our work has inspired the amazing team at Jasper Hill Farm to make new cheeses (bloomy rind cheese in top of the photo) with their locally-adapted Penicillium solitum isolates. This is different from the French strains of Penicillium camemberti that are typically used.

Wheels of a Camembert-style cheese made with a white/mutant Penicillium solitum isolate. These cheeses are placed alongside plates of Penicillium solitum and the blue cheese Bayley Hazen Blue where the fungus was originally isolated.

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Benjamin Wolfe @benwolfe.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

There is a lot in the paper, and too much to unpack here (read it!). But my favorite part of the story is that transposable elements that insert just upstream of alb1 are likely causing a lot of the green --> white phenotypic shifts.

Figure showing the types and locations of mutations/insertions in the alb1 gene of Penicillium solitum

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Benjamin Wolfe @benwolfe.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

And so began the highly creative and integrative PhD project by @nicolasleonlouw.bsky.social to understand if/how Penicillium solitum was evolving in this cheese cave. The frozen samples from 2016 from the wedding proposal trip were an essential microbial time capsule for this work.

Researchers sampling the rinds of a blue cheese in a cheese cave

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Benjamin Wolfe @benwolfe.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

We used images from social media and other sources to piece together a timeline of the Bayley Hazen Blue green-to-white transition from ~2014 to 2024.

Timeline showing the transition of rinds of Bayley Hazen Blue cheese going from green to white from 2014 to 2024

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Benjamin Wolfe @benwolfe.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

At the same time, we had been noticing (with lots of help from the amazing team of cheesemakers and affineurs!) that in the Jasper Hill cheese caves, the rinds of Bayley Hazen Blue were turning white!

Wheels of a blue cheese with white rinds

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Benjamin Wolfe @benwolfe.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

In some cases when you passaged the green Penicillium solitum on cheese curd agar in the lab, it would change from green to white over very short periods of time.

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Benjamin Wolfe @benwolfe.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Rachel said YES to Charlie's marriage proposal. And we collected a bunch of samples from the rinds of Bayley Hazen Blue cheese. At the time, the rinds of the cheese were bright green. I put the 2016 green rind samples in the -80 freezer and never tossed them out...

Wheels of the blue cheese Bayley Hazen Blue with a green fungus on the surface

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Benjamin Wolfe @benwolfe.bsky.social · 05/11/2024

We had fun thinking about the future of fermented foods in this review for @currentbiology.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Benjamin Wolfe @benwolfe.bsky.social · 30/11/2023

Sent out some trainee love on our Slack today. This is a tough time of the year for many for a lot of reasons. Check in on your people and be kind to yourself and others. Grateful for the many folks who have checked in on me in the past. ❤️

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Benjamin Wolfe @benwolfe.bsky.social · 21/09/2023

Excited to share our review in Annual Review of Microbiology on microbiome assembly in fermented foods. We tried to write an accessible review of the mechanisms/processes that shape microbial communities across a range of ferments. Enjoy! www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10....

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Benjamin Wolfe @benwolfe.bsky.social · 12/09/2023

Going to need a bigger rain gauge if we keep having rain like we did this summer. This all fell last night in ~ 2 hours. Hoping everyone in Central MA stays safe and dries out soon. (Sorry for inches… I ❤️ metric system!).

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Benjamin Wolfe @benwolfe.bsky.social · 10/09/2023

Step one in making cheese curd agar.

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