Zhou Peng, Liu Jinman, Merritt Justin, Qi Fengxia
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK 73104.
Division of Oral Biology, College of Dentistry, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK 73104.
Mol Oral Microbiol. 2015 Aug;30(4):269-279. doi: 10.1111/omi.12091. Epub 2015 Jan 19.
Dental biofilm development is a sequential process, and adherence between microbes and the salivary pellicle (adhesion) as well as among different microbes (co-adhesion or coaggregation) plays a critical role in building a biofilm community. The Veillonella species are among the most predominant species in the oral cavity and coaggregate with many initial, early, middle, and late colonizers. Similar to oral fusobacteria, they are also considered bridging species in biofilm development. However, the mechanism of this ability has yet to be reported, due to the previous lack of a genetic transformation system in the entire genus. In this study, we used our recently discovered transformable Veillonella strain, Veillonella atypica OK5, to probe the mechanism of coaggregation between Veillonella species and other oral bacteria. By insertional inactivation of all eight putative hemagglutinin genes, we identified one gene, hag1, which is involved in V. atypica coaggregation with the initial colonizers Streptococcus gordonii, Streptococcus oralis and Streptococcus cristatus, and the periodontal pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis. The hag1 mutant also abolished adherence to human buccal cells. Inhibition assays using various chemical or physiological treatments suggest different mechanisms being involved in coaggregation with different partners. The entire hag1 gene was sequenced and shown to be the largest known bacterial hemagglutinin gene.
牙菌斑的形成是一个循序渐进的过程,微生物与唾液薄膜之间的黏附(黏附作用)以及不同微生物之间的黏附(共黏附或共聚作用)在构建生物膜群落中起着关键作用。韦荣氏菌属是口腔中最主要的菌属之一,它能与许多早期、中期和晚期的定植菌共聚。与口腔梭杆菌类似,它们也被认为是生物膜形成过程中的桥梁菌属。然而,由于此前整个韦荣氏菌属缺乏遗传转化系统,这种共聚能力的机制尚未见报道。在本研究中,我们使用最近发现的可转化韦荣氏菌株——非典型韦荣氏菌OK5,来探究韦荣氏菌属与其他口腔细菌之间的共聚机制。通过对所有八个假定的血凝素基因进行插入失活,我们鉴定出一个基因hag1,它参与非典型韦荣氏菌与早期定植菌戈登氏链球菌、口腔链球菌、嵴链球菌以及牙周病原体牙龈卟啉单胞菌的共聚。hag1突变体也消除了对人颊细胞的黏附。使用各种化学或生理学处理的抑制试验表明,与不同伙伴的共聚涉及不同机制。对整个hag1基因进行测序,结果显示它是已知最大的细菌血凝素基因。