Abstract
The human oral cavity is home to an abundant and diverse microbial community (i.e., the oral microbiome), whose composition and roles in health and disease have been the focus of intense research in recent years. Thanks to developments in sequencing-based approaches, such as 16S ribosomal RNA metabarcoding, whole metagenome shotgun sequencing, or meta-transcriptomics, we now can efficiently explore the diversity and roles of oral microbes, even if unculturable. Recent sequencing-based studies have charted oral ecosystems and how they change due to lifestyle or disease conditions. As studies progress, there is increasing evidence of an important role of the oral microbiome in diverse health conditions, which are not limited to diseases of the oral cavity. This, in turn, opens new avenues for microbiome-based diagnostics and therapeutics that benefit from the easy accessibility of the oral cavity for microbiome monitoring and manipulation. Yet, many challenges remain ahead. In this review, we survey the main sequencing-based methodologies that are currently used to explore the oral microbiome and highlight major findings enabled by these approaches. Finally, we discuss future prospects in the field.
Highlights
Much like the various terrestrial biomes that make up the Earth, the human microbiome is a series of distinct communities of bacteria, fungi, viruses, archaea, protists, and other microorganisms, whose compositions are dependent upon environmental conditions [1]
Studies aiming to characterize the composition of the oral microbiome in diverse human populations are progressing rapidly, as are those looking for variation according to a growing number of parameters, those related to health and disease
We provide a general overview of the state-of-the-art methodologies used to study the oral microbiome, and of the main results obtained during the last decade of intense research
Summary
Much like the various terrestrial biomes that make up the Earth, the human microbiome is a series of distinct communities of bacteria, fungi, viruses, archaea, protists, and other microorganisms, whose compositions are dependent upon environmental conditions [1]. The focus of this review will be the human oral microbiome, techniques to approaching its analysis, and outlining its typical composition as we currently know it, as well as its deviations under atypical conditions. Genera: Leptotrichia (later in progression of disease) Species: Porphyromonas gingivalis and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (at onset of disease). Genera: Leptotrichia (at onset of disease) Species: Porphyromonas gingivalis and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (later in progression of disease) Species: Streptococcus oralis (depends on environmental conditions). Studies aiming to characterize the composition of the oral microbiome in diverse human populations are progressing rapidly, as are those looking for variation according to a growing number of parameters, those related to health and disease. Throughout the review, we will put a focus on the emerging roles of the oral microbiome in health and disease, and the new opportunities for therapeutics and diagnostics
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