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Bacterial Ecology

Dental double act

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 6, page 799 (2008)Cite this article

Saliva, from which oral bacteria derive nutrients, contains low concentrations of the amino acid arginine. Recent work has shown that co-aggregation of S. gordonii with A. naeslundii results in the stabilization of S. gordonii arginine biosynthesis genes, enabling the bacteria to grow under conditions of scarce arginine. However, co-aggregation also led to increased activity of the S. gordonii pyruvate oxidase, SpxB, which produces H2O2 as a by-product. SpxB activity can produce sufficient H2O2 to kill neighbouring bacteria by causing irreversible oxidative damage to amino-acid residues, such as arginine, which leads to a loss of protein function.

Given that streptococci do not produce catalase, which removes H2O2, the benefit gained from increased arginine biosynthesis during co-aggregation may be abrogated by the cellular protein damage that is caused by increased H2O2 production. To address this issue, Jakubovics and colleagues set out to determine whether co-aggregation with A. naeslundii affected concentrations of H2O2 in S. gordonii.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Jakubovics, N. S. et al. Role of hydrogen peroxide in competition and cooperation between Streptococcus gordonii and Actinomyces naeslundii. FEMS Microbiol. Ecol. 9 Sep 2008 (doi:10.1111/J.1574-6941.2008.00585.X)

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  1. Andrew Jermy
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Jermy, A. Dental double act. Nat Rev Microbiol 6, 799 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro2023

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro2023

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