Protein relative abundance patterns associated with sucrose-induced dysbiosis are conserved across taxonomically diverse oral microcosm biofilm models of dental caries

Abstract

Background: The etiology of dental caries is multifactorial, but frequent consumption of free sugars, notably sucrose, appears to be a major factor driving the supragingival microbiota in the direction of dysbiosis. Recent 16S rRNA-based studies indicated that caries-associated communities were less diverse than healthy supragingival plaque but still displayed considerable taxonomic diversity between individuals. Metagenomic studies likewise have found that healthy oral sites from different people were broadly similar with respect to gene function, even though there was an extensive individual variation in their taxonomic profiles. That pattern may also extend to dysbiotic communities. In that case, shifts in community-wide protein relative abundance might provide better biomarkers of dysbiosis that can be achieved through taxonomy alone.

Interfacial degradation of adhesive composite restorations mediated by oral biofilms and mechanical challenge in an extracted tooth model of secondary caries

“…Because of that limitation, it is important to be cautious in generalizing the results to other individuals. That said, a drastic pH reduction was only seen in the presence of sucrose pulsing, and the same pattern was characteristic in our previous biofilm reactor studies with inoculums from other subjects [25, 28, 29]. This highlights the importance of environmental factors in inducing dysbiosis of oral biofilms.…”

“…Frozen multispecies biofilm stocks from multiple subjects were made and stored during the course of previous studies [25, 28, 29]. Briefly, plaque and saliva samples were collected from children with mixed dentitions (6–12 years of age) determined to be at high risk for caries.…”

“…Whole saliva was collected by expectoration. Those sampling protocols were approved by the University of Minnesota Institutional Review Board; detailed descriptions are available in our previous publications [25, 28, 29]. …”

“…The original plaque sample for subject 781 was collected from the margin of a composite restoration with active secondary caries. Detailed information on the taxonomic composition of the 781plaque sample, and the taxonomic and metaproteomic composition of the 781NS and 781WS biofilms can be found in the supplementary files that accompany a recent article [29]. …”

“…Data published elsewhere had previously shown that anaerobic species were able to survive in this system, presumably due to oxygen consumption by facultative species [29]. …”