Abstract
The oral microbiota can be affected by several factors; however, little is known about the relationship between diet, ethnicity and commensal oral microbiota among school children living in close geographic proximity. In addition, the relationship between the oral and gut microbiota remains unclear. We collected saliva from 60 school children from the Tibetan, Han and Hui ethnicities for a 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis and comparison with previously collected fecal samples. The study revealed that Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria were the dominant phyla in the oral microbiota. The Shannon diversity was lowest in the Tibetan group. A PCA showed a substantial overlap in the distribution of the taxa, indicating a high degree of conservation among the oral microbiota across ethnic groups while the enrichment of a few specific taxa was observed across different ethnic groups. The consumption of seafood, poultry, sweets and vegetables was significantly correlated with multiple oral microbiotas. Furthermore, 123 oral genera were significantly associated with 191 gut genera. A principal coordinate analysis revealed that the oral microbiota clustered separately from the gut microbiota. This work extends the findings of previous studies comparing microbiota from human populations and provides a basis for the exploration of the interactions governing the tri-partite relationship between diet, oral microbiota and gut microbiota.
Highlights
Oral health is considered to be a fundamental component of general health and poor oral health such as dental caries and periodontitis can lead to pain, poor nutrition and high treatment costs decreasing the quality of life [1]
In light of our previous data on diet-related differences in the gut microbiota from Han, Hui and Tibetan children living in close proximity, we proposed that the composition and diversity of the oral microbiota was related to diet, which were both related to the composition and diversity of the gut microbiota
We investigated the oral microbiota in salivary samples obtained from 60 Tibetan, Han and Hui school children living in the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau using a 16S rRNA analysis
Summary
Oral health is considered to be a fundamental component of general health and poor oral health such as dental caries and periodontitis can lead to pain, poor nutrition and high treatment costs decreasing the quality of life [1]. Children are in a critical developmental period when their permanent teeth replace their deciduous teeth and some oral diseases can affect the development of permanent teeth [2]. The identification of risk factors in children can help reduce the prevalence of oral diseases that have been shown to have a clear association with the oral microbiota [3]. Abundant evidence supports the direct and indirect influence of the oral microbiota on the formation and development of oral diseases such as dental caries and periodontal disease [7,8]. Oral microbial communities reportedly participate in several systemic diseases such as cancer, pneumonia, preterm low birth weight, atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease [9,10,11,12,13]
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