Scientists find yeast in frozen mummy's guts, use it to make sourdough bread
Researchers say four cold-adapted yeast species on the mummy may still be metabolically active, with one strain increasing over a decade in storage.
- Italian microbiologists have successfully baked a sourdough loaf using cold-adapted yeast strains cultivated directly from the 5,300-year-old remains of Ötzi the Iceman.
- The groundbreaking study, published Wednesday in the journal Microbiome, reveals that the frozen mummy is actually a dynamic ecosystem rather than a static time-capsule, hosting living, metabolically active organisms that are still responding to their environment.
- Lead researcher Mohamed Sarhan and his team at Bolzano's Eurac Research institute isolated four distinct yeast species from Ötzi's skin and internal meltwater, which genetic analysis indicates colonized the body shortly after his copper-age murder in the Alps.
- The microbiologists spent three months painstakingly reproducing and feeding the glacier-derived yeast strains inside a refrigerator, eventually establishing a highly active starter culture that produced what Sarhan called "a very, very good sourdough."
- Beyond experimental baking, the unique yeasts show unexpected potential for industrial pollution cleanup, as three of the isolated strains possess a rare ability to aggressively break down and consume phenol, a toxic environmental chemical.
97 Articles
97 Articles
Ancient Yeasts Found on Ötzi the Iceman May Still Be Alive, Study Finds
Reconstruction of Ötzi the Iceman. Credit: South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 More than 5,300 years after his death, Ötzi the Iceman is helping scientists uncover a hidden world of cold-adapted yeasts. Researchers have discovered that the famous mummy’s skin and stomach contain yeasts that likely colonized his body shortly after his death. Some of these microorganisms may still be active today, according to a study publ…
Ancient Yeasts Identified on Ötzi the Iceman - Archaeology Magazine
Microbiologist Mohamed Sarhan examines colonies of yeast taken from a sample of Ötzi’s stomach. MUNICH, GERMANY—According to a Science News report, four species of ancient yeast have been identified among the microbiome on the mummified remains of a man known as Ötzi the Iceman. Albert Zink of Ludwig Maximilian University said that the 5,300-year-old mummified person is kept in a special facility in Italy that mimics the glacial conditions where…
Scientists use yeast from body of Ötzi the Iceman to make "very very good" sourdough
Yeast survived for millenia inside a mummy, and can still be used to make bread. About 5300 years ago, a Tyrolean man died after being shot in the shoulder with an arrow. His body was so well-preserved in the Alpine ice on the border of Italy and Austria that it was initially believed to be that of a recently deceased hiker. — Read the rest The post Scientists use yeast from body of Ötzi the Iceman to make "very very good" sourdough appeared fir…
A discovery in the glacier mummy Ötzi makes a curious application possible. A team from Bolzano succeeds in producing a sourdough from the yeast fungi discovered. Scientists already have the next idea.
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 45% of the sources are Center
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
