Aouizerat T, Maeir AM, Paz Y, Gadot Y, Szitenberg A, Alkalay-Oren S, Coppenhagen-Glazer S, Klutstein M, Hazan R. Isolation and Characterization of Live Yeast Cells from Ancient Clay Vessels.
Bio Protoc 2020;
10:e3473. [PMID:
33654708 DOI:
10.21769/bioprotoc.3473]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2019] [Revised: 11/23/2019] [Accepted: 11/24/2019] [Indexed: 11/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Ancient fermented food has been studied mainly based on residue analysis and recipes and reconstruction attempts were performed using modern domesticated yeast. Furthermore, microorganisms which participated in fermentation were studied using ancient-DNA techniques. In a recent paper, we presented a novel approach based on the hypothesis that enriched yeast populations in fermented beverages could have become the dominant species in storage vessels and their descendants could be isolated and studied today. Here we present a pipeline for isolation of yeast from clay vessels uncovered in archeological sites and transferred to the microbiology lab where they can be isolated and characterized. This method opens new avenues for experimental archeology and enables attempts to recreate ancient food and beverages using the original microorganisms.
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