Aquisition of the Oral Microbiota in Infants

The human oral cavity is sterile at birth, and we have limited knowledge of how the complex oral microbial communities seen in adults might develop in children, or when key species are acquired. Understanding the assembly of oral microbial communities and factors that alter their composition may be vital to understanding the pathogenesis of chronic oral diseases and the development of preventive and therapeutic strategies. We report the first use, to our knowledge, of 16S rRNA gene sequencing in a longitudinal study of oral bacteria acquisition and community assembly at the level of species in the developing infant.