Dental caries and the microbial ecology of dental plaque: a review of recent advances.
Our understanding of the microbial ecology of dental plaque has rapidly grown with recent developments in the techniques of molecular biology. In particular, knowledge of the mechanisms underlying the acquisition, establishment, pathogenicity, and evolution of the group of organisms responsible for dental caries--the mutans streptococci--has expanded to the point that we can now contemplate new opportunities for caries prevention. These advances reinforce developing concepts of dental plaque as an interdependent, interacting community of specialised organisms with an ability to rapidly adapt conferred by gene structures that facilitate the expeditious modular rearrangement of protein components.
Department of Microbiology, University of Otago, Dunedin.
R S
RS
Simmonds
G R
GR
Tompkins
R J
RJ
George
D000220:Adaptation, Biological; D000818:Animals; D001422:Bacterial Adhesion; D001428:Bacterial Vaccines; D001430:Bacteriocins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000382:microbiology*; D003773:Dental Plaque / Q000382:microbiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D005964:Glucosyltransferases / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007071:Immunoglobulin A, Secretory / Q000276:immunology; D012471:Salivary Proteins and Peptides / Q000276:immunology; D013291:Streptococcus / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity*
D001428:Bacterial Vaccines; D001430:Bacteriocins; D007071:Immunoglobulin A, Secretory; D012471:Salivary Proteins and Peptides; D005964:Glucosyltransferases