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A spatial gradient of bacterial diversity in the human oral cavity shaped by salivary flow.
Proctor, DM, Fukuyama, JA, Loomer, PM, Armitage, GC, Lee, SA, Davis, NM, Ryder, MI, Holmes, SP, Relman, DA
Nature communications. 2018;9(1):681
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Plain language summary
Identifying spatial patterns in the human microbiota is necessary to provide insight into mechanisms that either maintain or disrupt its healthy state. The aim of this study was to identify the type and extent of oral spatial patterns formed by bacterial communities, as well as observe the impact of low salivary flow on the spatial patterns. Dental exams were performed on 31 participants to evaluate the oral health status and follow-up was dependent on group allocation. This study found bacterial communities were distinguishable depending on types of teeth and tissue. Further, bacteria on soft and hard tissues varied across the front and back of the oral cavity in a gradient-manner, implying that salivary flow plays a role in establishing the bacterial community gradient in the oral cavity. Based on these results, the authors recommend spatial patterns and processes be explored in other body parts to better understand health and disease.
Abstract
Spatial and temporal patterns in microbial communities provide insights into the forces that shape them, their functions and roles in health and disease. Here, we used spatial and ecological statistics to analyze the role that saliva plays in structuring bacterial communities of the human mouth using >9000 dental and mucosal samples. We show that regardless of tissue type (teeth, alveolar mucosa, keratinized gingiva, or buccal mucosa), surface-associated bacterial communities vary along an ecological gradient from the front to the back of the mouth, and that on exposed tooth surfaces, the gradient is pronounced on lingual compared to buccal surfaces. Furthermore, our data suggest that this gradient is attenuated in individuals with low salivary flow due to Sjögren's syndrome. Taken together, our findings imply that salivary flow influences the spatial organization of microbial communities and that biogeographical patterns may be useful for understanding host physiological processes and for predicting disease.
2.
Microbiota-targeted therapies: an ecological perspective.
Lemon, KP, Armitage, GC, Relman, DA, Fischbach, MA
Science translational medicine. 2012;(137):137rv5
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Abstract
The connection between disease and the disruption of homeostatic interactions between the host and its microbiota is now well established. Drug developers and clinicians are starting to rely more heavily on therapies that directly target the microbiota and on the ecology of the microbiota to understand the outcomes of these treatments. The effects of those microbiota-targeted therapies that alter community composition range in scale from eliminating individual strains of a single species (for example, with antibacterial conjugate vaccines) to replacing the entire community with a new intact microbiota (for example, by fecal transplantation). Secondary infections linked to antibiotic use provide a cautionary tale of the unintended consequences of perturbing a microbial species network and highlight the need for new narrow-spectrum antibiotics with rapid companion diagnostics. Insights into microbial ecology will also benefit the development of probiotics, whose therapeutic prospects will depend on rigorous clinical testing. Future probiotics may take the form of a consortium of long-term community residents: "a fecal transplant in a capsule." The efficacy of microbiota-targeted therapies will need to be assessed using new diagnostic tools that measure community function rather than composition, including the temporal response of a microbial community to a defined perturbation such as an antibiotic or probiotic.