Interrogation of Glucose Metabolism by Oral Biofilms Using Combined NMR/Optical Spectroscopy and Stable Isotope Labeling
EMSL Project ID
16090
Abstract
Dental caries disease and associated tooth decay (demineralization) is correlated with a decrease in pH and increase in the proportion of acidogenic and aciduric species within the attached microbial community. Dental biofilms are comprised of diverse combinations of over 600 different bacterial and archaeal species. While certain species such as Streptococcus mutans in dental plaque are hallmarks of caries, the contributions of other species to the diseased state are largely unknown. Furthermore, little information is available regarding the types, concentrations, rates of production, and residence times of organic acids that are responsible for decreasing the pH in cariogenic biofilms or the species responsible for producing them. Much of what is known has been derived from pure culture studies and does not reflect complex microbial communities nor the cell types that cannot be cultured (roughly 50% of those identified). To develop more useful insights into the correlation between organic acid production and bacterial species present in dental biofilms we propose to use in situ non-destructive nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methodologies developed at PNNL. NMR will be employed to characterize metabolite production in pure and mixed species biofilms comprised of Streptococcus mutans alone or with other bacterial species commonly associated with dental caries. Concurrently, stable isotope probing (SIP) with be used to identify the bacterial types that actively participate in organic acids produced from the common sugar glucose. Successful application of these combined approaches to address oral biofilm behavior will pave the way to addressing questions regarding metabolism affiliated with other complex microbial communities.
Project Details
Project type
Capability Research
Start Date
2005-12-19
End Date
2007-05-21
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members
Related Publications
Faculty of 1000 Biology: evaluations for McLean JS et al 2008 Feb 2 (2) :121-31
http://www.f1000biology.com/article/id/1104258/evaluation
Faculty of 1000 Biology: evaluations for McLean JS et al ISME J 2008 Feb 2 (2) :121-31 http://www.f1000biology.com/article/id/1104258/evaluation
"Majors PD, JS Mclean, and RA Wind. 2006. "NMR microscopy of dental biofilm metabolism." Proc. ISMRM, 14: 2013."
Majors PD, JS Mclean, ON Ona, JC Scholten and RA Wind. 2007. "Hyphenated nuclear magnetic resonance technologies for microbial physiology studies." Presented by Paul D. Majors (Invited Speaker) at Irish Branch of the Society for General Microbiology Conference, Limerick Ireland, April 20 2007. PNNL-SA-54446."
McLean JS, ON Ona and PD Majors. 2008. "Correlated biofilm imaging, transport and metabolism measurements via combined nuclear magnetic resonance and confocal microscopy." ISME Journal 2(2), 121-131, doi:10.1038/ismej.2007.107.
McLean JS, PD Majors, CL Reardon, CL Bilksis, SB Reed, MF Romine and JK Fredrickson (2008). “Investigations of Metabolism and Structure within Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 Biofilms,” Journal of Microbiological Methods 74(1): 47-56, doi:10.1016/j.mimet.2008.02.015 .