Abstract
Mucus forms a major ecological niche for microbiota in various locations throughout the human body such as the gastrointestinal tract, respiratory tract and oral cavity. The primary structural components of mucus are mucin glycoproteins, which crosslink to form a complex polymer network that surrounds microbes. Although the mucin matrix could create constraints that impact inhabiting microbes, little is understood about how this key environmental factor affects interspecies interactions. In this study, we develop an experimental model using gel-forming human salivary mucins to understand the influence of mucin on the viability of two competing species of oral bacteria. We use this dual-species model to show that mucins promote the coexistence of the two competing bacteria and that mucins shift cells from the mixed-species biofilm into the planktonic form. Taken together, these findings indicate that the mucus environment could influence bacterial viability by promoting a less competitive mode of growth.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Julia Co, Nicole Kavanaugh and Gerardo Cárcamo-Oyarce for their helpful advice and guidance. This work was generously supported by a F30 NIDCR fellowship 1F30DE024917-01A1 (ESF), a 2013 Preterm Birth Research Grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (KR) and a core center grant P30-ES002109 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health (KR).
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Frenkel, E., Ribbeck, K. Salivary mucins promote the coexistence of competing oral bacterial species. ISME J 11, 1286–1290 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2016.200
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2016.200
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