Scientists at the Eurac Research center in Italy have succeeded in making sour bread with ancient yeast collected from inside the body and on the skin of a 5,300-year-old mummy nicknamed Otzi the Iceman.
According to published information, researchers have discovered many cold-tolerant yeast strains when analyzing microorganisms on the skin, in the digestive system and in the melted water inside Otzi's mummy. This bronze-era mummy was found in the Italian Alps in 1991.
Mr. Mohamed Sarhan, a microbiologist involved in the study, said that the scientific team conducted initial tests and obtained positive results. They used ancient yeast strains to create yeast for sour bread and produced batches of good quality flour.
According to Mr. Sarhan, after about 2 weeks of being raised with flour, the yeast strain has adapted to the dough-making environment. Because Otzi mummies are stored at a temperature of about minus 6 degrees Celsius, these yeast strains are particularly noteworthy for their ability to adapt to very cold environments.
The research team believes that the new discovery could benefit the modern food industry. The ability to ferment at refrigerator-equivalent temperatures or during transportation can help reduce energy demand in production.
The research results also show that the microbiome of the mummy contains many different layers of organisms. Among them are traces of microorganisms from when Otzi was alive, organisms appearing after the body was preserved in the ice age, and modern microorganisms appearing during decades of preservation and research of mummies.
Genetic analysis shows that cold-loving yeast strains are likely to originate from the glacial environment where Otzi was preserved and has been associated with the mummy for millennia.
Researchers say the next step could be experimenting with brewing beer using these restored ancient microorganisms.
Research on the revival of ancient organisms is not the only case. Previously, in 2023, scientists in Russia successfully restored a female nematode after this organism was in a dormant state for 46,000 years in the permafrost in Siberia.
