Abstract
A fundamental question in microbial ecology is how microbes are spatially organized with respect to each other and their host. A test bed for examining this question is the tongue dorsum, which harbors a complex and important microbial community. We used multiplexed fluorescence spectral imaging to investigate the organization of the tongue microbiome at micron to hundred-micron scales. We designed oligonucleotide probes for taxa both abundant and prevalent as determined by sequence analysis. Imaging revealed a highly structured spatial organization of microbial consortia ranging in linear dimension from tens to hundreds of microns. The consortia appeared to develop from a core of epithelial cells, with taxa clustering in domains suggestive of clonal expansion. Quantitative proximity analysis provided the basis for a model of tongue dorsum microbiome organization and dynamics. Our work illustrates how high resolution analysis of micron-scale organization provides insights into physiological functions and microbiome-host interactions.
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