Abstract
Streptococcus mutans is an oral species closely associated with dental caries. As an early oral colonizer, S. mutans utilizes interspecies coaggregation to promote the colonization of subsequent species and affect polymicrobial pathogenesis. Previous studies have confirmed several adhering partner species of S. mutans, including Candida albicans and Fusobacterium nucleatum. In this study, we discovered new intergeneric co-adherence between S. mutans and the saliva isolate Streptococcus agalactiae (GBS-SI101). Research shows that GBS typically colonizes the human gastrointestinal and vaginal tracts. It is responsible for adverse pregnancy outcomes and life-threatening infections in neonates and immunocompromised people. Our results revealed that GtfB and GtfC of S. mutans, which contributed to extracellular polysaccharide synthesis, promoted coaggregation of S. mutans with GBS-SI101. In addition, oral streptococci, including Streptococcus sanguinis, Streptococcus gordonii and S. mutans, barely inhibited the growth of GBS-SI101. This study indicated that S. mutans could help GBS integrate into the Streptococcus-associated oral polymicrobial community and become a resident species in the oral cavity, increasing the risk of oral infections.
Highlights
The oral microbiome consists of ∼700 species of bacteria (Paster et al, 2010)
The results indicated that lack of either gtfB- or gtfC-encoded functions impaired S. mutans’ ability to physically bind to also known as Group B Streptococcus (GBS)-SI101
Our results showed that GBS-SI101, derived from saliva samples, adhered to S. mutans directly
Summary
The oral microbiome consists of ∼700 species of bacteria (Paster et al, 2010). The disparity of oral bacteria among different individuals is relatively low (The Human Microbiome Project Consortium, 2012). The complexity of the oral microbiota in a single individual is the highest compared to that of other body sites (Aas et al, 2005). Oral microbes engage in extensive cell-cell interactions. Colonizers adhere to accessible host surfaces and facilitate the colonization of subsequent species via intergeneric coaggregation, forming highly structured polymicrobial oral biofilms (Kolenbrander et al, 2010). Intergeneric cell-cell communication can trigger signaling cascades and induce changes in the gene expression of the attached species, influencing the expression of virulence factors of microorganisms in the oral cavity (Krzysciak et al, 2014)
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