Exploring the oral microbiota of children at various developmental stages of their dentition in the relation to their oral health

Abstract

BackgroundAn understanding of the relation of commensal microbiota to health is essential in preventing disease. Here we studied the oral microbial composition of children (N = 74, aged 3 - 18 years) in natural transition from their deciduous to a permanent dentition and related the microbial profiles to their oral health status. The microbial composition of saliva was assessed by barcoded pyrosequencing of the V5-V6 hypervariable regions of the 16 S rRNA, as well as by using phylogenetic microarrays.ResultsPyrosequencing reads (126174 reads, 1045 unique sequences) represented 8 phyla and 113 higher taxa in saliva samples. Four phyla - Firmicutes, Bacteriodetes, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria - predominated in all groups. The deciduous dentition harboured a higher proportion of Proteobacteria (Gammaproteobacteria, Moraxellaceae) than Bacteroidetes, while in all other groups Bacteroidetes were at least as abundant as Proteobacteria. Bacteroidetes (mainly genus Prevotella), Veillonellaceae family, Spirochaetes and candidate division TM7 increased with increasing age, reflecting maturation of the microbiome driven by biological changes with age.Microarray analysis enabled further analysis of the individual salivary microbiota. Of 350 microarray probes, 156 gave a positive signal with, on average, 77 (range 48-93) probes per individual sample.A caries-free oral status significantly associated with the higher signal of the probes targeting Porphyromonas catoniae and Neisseria flavescens.ConclusionsThe potential role of P. catoniae and N. flavescens as oral health markers should be assessed in large-scale clinical studies. The combination of both, open-ended and targeted molecular approaches provides us with information that will increase our understanding of the interplay between the human host and its microbiome.

Immune status, antibiotic medication and pH are associated with changes in the stomach fluid microbiota

“…Our results reveal that human gastric fluid harbors a diverse microbiota dominated by Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Fusobacteria and Proteobacteria, demonstrating a similar overall composition at the phylum level as previously found in other GI tract locations, including intraoral niches (Zaura et al, 2009;Crielaard et al, 2011), throat (Andersson et al, 2008), distal esophagus (Pei et al, 2004), stomach mucosa (Bik et al, 2006;Andersson et al, 2008) and feces (Costello et al, 2009). Fungal members of the microbiota are also identified, including the known pathogen C. albicans.…”

Non-pathogenic Neisseria: members of an abundant, multi-habitat, diverse genus

“…A study of children between three and 18 years of age revealed that Neisseria is highly prevalent (97 % of 74 saliva samples) and a single probe for N. flavescens was significantly associated with a caries-free oral status (Crielaard et al, 2011). In contrast, in two NGS-based studies targeting younger children in China, Neisseria was found to be a predominant genus, although its abundance was not related to dental caries (Ling et al, 2010;Xu et al, 2014).…”

Exploring Symbioses by Single-Cell Genomics

“…Representatives of the candidate TM7 phylum have been found in biofilms of the subgingvial crevice in healthy humans and also in conjunction with periodonditis ( Fig. 2b) (Colombo et al, 2009;Crielaard et al, 2011). The fact that these microorganisms are not highly abundant in the microbiome of the human mouth represents a special challenge when obtaining single cells.…”