Abstract

The establishment and persistence of bacterial microcommunities may be dependent on specific interactions between different organisms that inhabit the microcommunity. Dental plaque represents one such microcommunity, which is characterized by a complex and highly organized set of interactions among oral bacteria as well as between bacteria and human oral tissue. Coaggregations, microbial cell-to-cell interactions among genetically distinct partner strains, are mediated by complementary cell surface components on the participating bacterial partners. An extension of this idea is that bacteria also may recognize host epithelial cells by some of these same surface components. The overall focus of this project is to investigate cell adherence molecules, cell signaling molecules, gene expression and gene transfer among bacteria within human oral biofilms and to relate these events to the architecture of the bacterial biofilm community.
Our aim i s to understand the molecular mechanisms of cellular communication and their relationship to the development and establishment of subgingival plaque and colonization of the host epithelial cells.

  Funding Agency

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)
Type
Intramural Research (Z01)
Project #
1Z01DE000273-20
Application #
6104566
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (OIIB)
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
Budget End
Support Year
20
Fiscal Year
1998
Total Cost
Indirect Cost

  Institution

Name
National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
State
Country
United States
Zip Code

  Publications

Periasamy, Saravanan; Kolenbrander, Paul E (2009) Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans builds mutualistic biofilm communities with Fusobacterium nucleatum and Veillonella species in saliva. Infect Immun 77:3542-51
Periasamy, Saravanan; Chalmers, Natalia I; Du-Thumm, Laurence et al. (2009) Fusobacterium nucleatum ATCC 10953 requires Actinomyces naeslundii ATCC 43146 for growth on saliva in a three-species community that includes Streptococcus oralis 34. Appl Environ Microbiol 75:3250-7
Jakubovics, Nicholas S; Gill, Steven R; Iobst, Stacey E et al. (2008) Regulation of gene expression in a mixed-genus community: stabilized arginine biosynthesis in Streptococcus gordonii by coaggregation with Actinomyces naeslundii. J Bacteriol 190:3646-57
Bachrach, Gilad; Altman, Hamutal; Kolenbrander, Paul E et al. (2008) Resistance of Porphyromonas gingivalis ATCC 33277 to direct killing by antimicrobial peptides is protease independent. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 52:638-42
Yoshida, Yasuo; Palmer, Robert J; Yang, Jinghua et al. (2006) Streptococcal receptor polysaccharides: recognition molecules for oral biofilm formation. BMC Oral Health 6 Suppl 1:S12
Palmer Jr, Robert J; Diaz, Patricia I; Kolenbrander, Paul E (2006) Rapid succession within the Veillonella population of a developing human oral biofilm in situ. J Bacteriol 188:4117-24
Diaz, Patricia I; Chalmers, Natalia I; Rickard, Alexander H et al. (2006) Molecular characterization of subject-specific oral microflora during initial colonization of enamel. Appl Environ Microbiol 72:2837-48
Kolenbrander, Paul E; Palmer Jr, Robert J; Rickard, Alexander H et al. (2006) Bacterial interactions and successions during plaque development. Periodontol 2000 42:47-79
Rickard, Alexander H; Palmer Jr, Robert J; Blehert, David S et al. (2006) Autoinducer 2: a concentration-dependent signal for mutualistic bacterial biofilm growth. Mol Microbiol 60:1446-56
Diaz, Patricia I; Slakeski, Nada; Reynolds, Eric C et al. (2006) Role of oxyR in the oral anaerobe Porphyromonas gingivalis. J Bacteriol 188:2454-62

Showing the most recent 10 out of 25 publications