Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolizing microorganisms in the oral cavity of smokers, Jan 25 '23

Certain soil microbes resist and metabolize polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The same is true for certain skin microbes. Oral microbes have the potential to oxidize tobacco PAHs to increase their ability to cause cancer. We hypothesized that oral microbes in smokers that can metabolize PAH can be identified. We isolated bacteria and fungi that survived long term in minimal media with PAHs as the sole carbon source, from the oral mucosa in 17 of 26 smokers and 2 of 16 nonsmokers. Of bacteria genera that survived harsh PAH exposure in vitro, most were found at trace levels. A subset of the samples that produced microbes that survived this selection procedure were subjected to 16S rRNA amplicon NGS and are described here.