Symbiosis of Streptococcus mutans and Veillonella alcalescens in mixed continuous cultures

Mikx, F. H. M.; Hoeven, J.S. van der

doi:10.1016/0003-9969(75)90224-1

Cited by 119 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…S. gordonii ferments starches to lactic acid. V. atypica cannot ferment sugar, but uses lactic acid as a preferred carbon source (Mikx and van der Hoeven 1975). The presence of V. atypica stimulates production of amylase by S. gordonii, breaking down starch to sugar that is fermented to lactic acid (Fig.…”

Section: By-product Exchangementioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics in the mixed microbial concourse

Wintermute¹,

Silver²

2010

Genes Dev.

169

137

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Isolated, clonal populations of cells are rarely found in nature. The emergent properties of microbial consortia present a challenge for the systems approach to biology, as chances for competition, communication, or collaboration multiply with the number of interacting agents. This review focuses on recent work on intercourse within biofilms, among quorum-sensing populations, and between cross-feeding metabolic cooperators. New tools from synthetic biology allow microbial interactions to be designed and tightly controlled, creating valuable model systems. We address both natural and synthetic partnerships, with an emphasis on how system behaviors derive from the properties of their components. Essential features of microbial biology arose in the context of a very mixed culture and cannot be understood without unscrambling it.

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Section: By-product Exchangementioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics in the mixed microbial concourse

Wintermute¹,

Silver²

2010

Genes Dev.

169

137

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“…alcalescens grew well and remained a predominant organism at pH 4.1. Veillonella cannot metabolize sugars but can form food-chains with lactate-producing bacteria (Mikx & van der Hoeven, 1975) and, after studies with gnotobiotic animals (Mikx et al, 1972), it was proposed that these organisms might modify the carious process by converting lactic acid to weaker acids (acetic and propionic). However, the recent findings of increased levels of Veillonella at carious sites in man (Boyar & Bowden, 1985;Milnes & Bowden, 1985), coupled with the in vitro observations that members of this genus can stimulate the growth (McKee et al, 1983) and glycolytic activity (Hamilton & Ng, 1983) of 5'.…”

Section: Glucosementioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Lowering the pH on the Composition and Metabolism of a Community of Nine Oral Bacteria Grown in a Chemostat

McDermid¹,

McKee²,

Ellwood³

et al. 1986

Microbiology

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Nine oral bacteria, associated with both healthy and diseased sites in the mouth, were grown at D = 0.05 h-' (mean generation time 13.9 h) in a glucose-limited chemostat. After an initial period of steady-state growth at pH 7.0, pH control was discontinued. The pH then decreased until it stabilized at pH 4-1 after 9 d (16 generations), while the Eh rose from -165 mV to + 160 mV. The lowering in pH resulted in the composition and metabolism of the flora being altered and in increased bacterial aggregation. At pH 7.0, 'Streptococcus mitior', Veillonella alcalescens and S. sanguis were most numerous while at pH 4.1 the counts of all bacteria fell except for Lactobacilius casei, which became predominant. The proportions of S . mutans within the community also increased while S. sanguis was recovered only occasionally and Bacteroides intermedius was not detected below pH 4.6. The survival at pH 4.1 of several other species would not have been predicted from earlier pure culture studies. Relative to pH 7.0, the community growing at pH 4.1 produced more lactic acid, washed cells had a greater glycolytic activity over a wider pH range but amino acid metabolism decreased. In general, when pH control was restored, so were the original patterns of metabolism and bacterial counts, except for B. intermedius, which was still not detected. The inverse relationship between S. sanguis and S. mutans, and the increase in proportions of L. casei and S . mutans during growth in a low pH environment parallel observations made in vivo and suggest that the chemostat can be used as a model for microbial behaviour in dental plaque.

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“…Thus, a food chain could develop between these bacteria with the end-product of one organism serving as a source of energy for the other. This symbiosis has been demonstrated in vitro between Streptococcus mutans and Veillonella alcalescens (4). Furthermore, an ecological survey by our laboratory has shown that strains of veillonella exist in specific parts of the mouth that are environments for their streptococcal coaggregation partners (5).…”

mentioning

confidence: 96%

Interspecies communication in Streptococcus gordonii–Veillonella atypica biofilms: Signaling in flow conditions requires juxtaposition

Egland

Palmer

Kolenbrander

2004

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

239

199

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During the development of human oral biofilm communities, the spatial arrangement of the bacteria is thought to be driven by metabolic interactions between them. Streptococcus gordonii and Veillonella atypica, two early colonizing members of the dental plaque biofilm, have been postulated to participate in metabolic communication; S. gordonii ferments carbohydrates to form lactic acid, which is a preferred fermentation substrate for V. atypica. We found that, during agar-plate coculture of these organisms, a signaling event occurs that results in increased expression of the S. gordonii ␣-amylase-encoding gene amyB. Confocal scanning laser microscopy of coculture flowcell-grown biofilms using human saliva as the sole nutrient showed that V. atypica caused S. gordonii to increase expression of a PamyB-gfp transcriptional fusion in a spatially resolved fashion. In this open system, only those streptococci in mixed-species microcolonies containing V. atypica expressed GFP; nearby S. gordonii colonies that lacked V. atypica did not express GFP. In a closed system containing S. gordonii and V. atypica, flow cytometric analysis showed that S. gordonii containing the PamyB-gfp reporter plasmid exhibited mean fluorescence levels 20-fold higher than did S. gordonii that had not been incubated with V. atypica. Thus, in a closed system where a diffusible signal can accumulate above a required threshold, interspecies signaling mediates a change in gene expression. We provide evidence that, in open systems like those that predominate in natural biofilms, diffusible signals between species are designed to function over short distances, on the order of 1 m.bacterial communities ͉ interspecies cell-cell signaling ͉ oral bacteria

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Symbiosis of Streptococcus mutans and Veillonella alcalescens in mixed continuous cultures

Cited by 119 publications

References 21 publications

Dynamics in the mixed microbial concourse

Dynamics in the mixed microbial concourse

The Effect of Lowering the pH on the Composition and Metabolism of a Community of Nine Oral Bacteria Grown in a Chemostat

Interspecies communication in Streptococcus gordonii–Veillonella atypica biofilms: Signaling in flow conditions requires juxtaposition

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