Identification of microbiota in carious dentin lesions by 16S rRNA pyrosequencing

Prevotella in dentinal caries lesions, whereas mutans streptococci had long been assumed to be the main pathogens responsible for human dental caries. This seeming contradiction should be explored in different ethnicities and races. In the present study, bacterial communities in carious dentin in Japanese subjects were analyzed comprehensively. Forty-four carious dentin lesion samples were collected from 32 subjects aged 4–76 years, and bacterial DNA was extracted. The V1-V2 regions of 16S rRNA genes, amplified from the extracted DNA with universal primers, were sequenced with a pyrosequencer.