Polyphosphate-accumulating Bacteria: Potential Contributors to Mineral Dissolution in the Oral Cavity.

Polyphosphate-accumulating Bacteria: Potential Contributors to Mineral Dissolution in the Oral Cavity. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2018 Jan 19;: Authors: Breiland AA, Flood BE, Nikrad J, Bakarich J, Husman M, Rhee T, Jones RS, Bailey JV Abstract Bacteria that accumulate polyphosphate have previously been shown to dynamically influence the solubility of phosphatic minerals in marine settings and wastewater. Here we show that dental plaque, saliva, and carious lesions, all contain abundant polyphosphate-accumulating bacteria. Saturation state modeling results, informed by phosphate uptake experiments using the model organism Lactobacillus rhamnosus, which is known to inhabit advanced carious-lesions, suggest that polyphosphate accumulation can lead to undersaturated conditions with respect to hydroxyapatite under some oral cavity conditions. The cell densities of polyphosphate-accumulating bacteria we observed in some regions of oral biofilms are comparable to those that produce undersaturated conditions (i.e., those that thermodynamically favor mineral dissolution) in our phosphate uptake experiments with L. rhamnosus These results suggest that the localized generation of undersaturated conditions by polyphosphate-accumulating bacteria constitutes a new potential mechanism of tooth dissolution that may augment the effects of metabolic acid production.IMPORTANCE Dental caries is a serious public health issue that can have negative impacts ...
Source: Applied and Environmental Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Appl Environ Microbiol Source Type: research