Glycerol metabolism supports oral commensal interactions.

To understand what molecular mechanisms determine the unique interspecies interactions between two predominant oral commensals Streptococcus sanguinis and Corynebacterium durum in the healthy oral cavity. We further investigated the regulatory connection between lipid metabolism and chain elongation based on the global gene expression profiling of the dual species cultures, as well as characterized S. sanguinis glycerol kinase (glpK) as a key gene involved in the interspecies interactions. Comparative gene expression profiling analysis of RNA-seq data for S.sanguinis at late log phase growth in the presence and absence of C. durum. Moreover, generation of the S. sanguinis glpK deletion mutant for phenotypic characterizations.