Familial clustering of the Streptococcus mutans cryptic plasmid strain in a dental clinic population.
Of Streptococcus mutans strains from 100 pedodontic patients, 13% contained the common cryptic plasmid. Family members of four plasmid-positive patients harbored plasmid-positive S. mutans at a significantly greater frequency compared with the pedodontic population, but there was not a one-to-one correlation of strains between mothers and children.
D005190:Family; D006801:Humans; D010957:Plasmids; D012463:Saliva / Q000382:microbiology*; D013295:Streptococcus mutans / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000302:isolation & purification