Taxonomic and gene category analysis of subgingival plaques with and without periodontal disease in Japanese

Periodontitis is a chronic inflammation of tooth-supporting tissues, which is caused by bacteria in subgingival plaque (biofilm). Traditionally, subgingival pathogens have been investigated using culture or DNA probes methods. Development of next generation sequencers made it possible to investigate whole microbiome in subgingival microbiome in the etiology of periodontitis. These studies conducted mainly in USA or Europe implicated dysbiosis of the subgingival microbiome in the etiology of periodontitis. However, details are still lacking. In this study, we conducted metagenomic analysis of subgingival plaques from a group of Japanese individuals with and without periodontitis.