Dental plaque development on a hydroxyapatite disk in young adults observed by using a barcoded pyrosequencing approach

• Published in: Scientific reports 2015-01, Vol.5 (1), p.8136-8136, Article 8136
• Main Authors: Takeshita, Toru, Yasui, Masaki, Shibata, Yukie, Furuta, Michiko, Saeki, Yoji, Eshima, Nobuoki, Yamashita, Yoshihisa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 45/77; 49/23; 631/158/855; 692/699/3017/3018; Adult; Anaerobic bacteria; Bacteria - growth & development; Biodiversity; Biofilms; Colony Count, Microbial; Dental caries; Dental Caries - microbiology; Dental plaque; Dental Plaque - microbiology; Dental restorative materials; DNA barcoding; DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic - methods; Durapatite - pharmacology; Female; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Hydroxyapatite; Male; multidisciplinary; Polymerase chain reaction; Principal Component Analysis; rRNA 16S; Saliva; Science; Sequence Analysis, DNA - methods; Species Specificity; Temperature; Time Factors; Young Adult; Young adults
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep08136

Dental plaque is a dynamic microbial biofilm ecosystem that comprises hundreds of species including difficult-to-cultivate bacteria. We observed the assembly of a plaque bacterial community through 16S rRNA gene analysis. Plaque samples that accumulated on a hydroxyapatite disk for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 days with saliva on day 0 were collected from 19 young adults using a removable resin splint. Quantitative PCR analysis showed that the total bacterial amount gradually increased and reached a plateau on day 4. Barcoded pyrosequencing analysis revealed that the microbial richness and diversity particularly increased between days 5 and 7. A principal coordinate analysis plot based on unweighted UniFrac showed the community assembly in a time-related manner, which became increasingly similar to the salivary microbiota. Facultative anaerobic bacteria such as Streptococcus, Neisseria, Abiotrophia , Gemella and Rothia were predominant in the plaque bacterial community in the earlier days, whereas obligate anaerobes, such as Porphyromonas , Fusobacterium , Prevotella and Capnocytophaga showed increased dominance on later days. UniFrac analysis also demonstrated that dental caries experience had a significant effect on the assembly process. Our results reveal the development pattern of the plaque bacterial community as well as the inter-individual differences associated with dental caries experience.