Site–Specific Oral Colonization of Mutans Streptococci Detected by Arbitrarily Primed PCR Fingerprinting

Abstract

The clonal diversity and colonization pattern of mutans streptococci within an individual were studied by using a total of 50 tooth site samples obtained from seven 3– to 7–year–old children. Five children contributed saliva samples. From the 7 subjects, 90, 74, 81, 53, 83, 103, and 114 isolates (a total of 598) representing Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus sobrinus were included for arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP–PCR) fingerprinting. The children harbored one to four different AP–PCR types of mutans streptococci. In 3 of the 7 children, the distribution of AP–PCR types of S. mutans differed depending on tooth site (chi–square test for heterogeneity, p<0.001), suggesting that mutans streptococcal clones may selectively colonize specific hard–tissue sites.