Table_1_The Crosstalk Between Saliva Bacteria and Fungi in Early Childhood Caries.xlsx

Early childhood caries (ECC) is the most prevalent oral disease in children, which greatly affects the quality of life and health condition of the patients. Although co-infection of oral streptococci and fungi has been well recognized in the development of ECC, the correlation between other core members of oral mycobiome and ECC progression remains unclear. In the current study, saliva samples obtained from severe ECC (SECC), ECC, and caries-free children were collected, and both V3–V4 16S rRNA and ITS1 rRNA gene amplicon sequencing were performed to investigate the salivary bacterial and fungal profiles. Significant alteration of salivary fungal community in SECC/ECC children was observed compared with the caries-free control. The typing analysis determined the fungal community into five fungal types, which influenced the structure of salivary bacteria. By performing Spearman correlation analysis, carious phenotypes were positively related to Fusobacterium but negatively linked to Neocosmospora, and a significant correlation of cross-kingdom taxonomic pairs was identified. Our work demonstrated the interactions between oral bacteria and fungi at the community level, which may advance our knowledge on the etiological role of bacteria/fungi in the development of ECC and promote better management of this disease.

儿童龋病（Early childhood caries, ECC）是儿童群体中最流行的口腔疾病，严重影响患儿的生活质量与健康状况。尽管口腔链球菌与真菌的共感染在ECC发生发展中的作用已得到广泛证实，但口腔真菌组（oral mycobiome）其他核心成员与ECC进展之间的关联仍不明确。本研究收集了重度儿童龋病（Severe Early Childhood Caries, SECC）患儿、ECC患儿以及无龋儿童的唾液样本，并通过V3–V4区16S rRNA与ITS1区rRNA基因扩增子测序，探究唾液中的细菌与真菌群落特征。结果显示，与无龋对照组相比，SECC/ECC患儿的唾液真菌群落存在显著改变。分型分析将真菌群落划分为5种真菌型，这些真菌型可影响唾液细菌的群落结构。通过斯皮尔曼相关性分析发现，龋病表型与梭杆菌属（Fusobacterium）呈正相关，而与新赤壳属（Neocosmospora）呈负相关，同时鉴定出了具有显著关联的跨界分类群对。本研究揭示了群落层面上口腔细菌与真菌之间的相互作用，有助于加深我们对细菌/真菌在ECC发生发展中病原学作用的认识，并可为该疾病的更好防控提供参考。