Human Supragingival Dental Plaque Targeted Locus (Loci)

Dental caries is the most common chronic disease of childhood, and is the biggest unmet health care need among America’s children. To date, effective biological interventions to prevent caries have not been developed. Dental caries is caused by the dissolution of tooth structure by acids produced by bacteria living in biofilms on the tooth surface. The dental plaque biofilm contains several hundred different organisms, many of which are poorly studied. In addition, comparatively little attention has been paid to identifying health-associated and potentially beneficial bacterial species that may reside in the oral cavity. Recent advances in sequencing technology now make it possible to more precisely study microbial communities. For the proposed project, bacterial species present in childhood caries and health will be identified by sequencing bacterial 16S ribosomal genes isolated from plaque samples using 454 pyrosequencing. Dental plaque samples will be collected from children under 6 years of age with severe caries of the primary dentition, and matched healthy controls. Accomplishment of the proposed studies will allow us to determine the relationship of bacterial community profiles to disease state. This could lead to both diagnostic/prognostic tests for caries as well as define targets for biologic interventions.