Comparative whole-genome analysis of Streptococcus mutans isolates within and among individuals of different caries status.
BACKGROUND
Genotypic analyses of Streptococcus mutans using fingerprinting methods depend on a few genetic loci being different but do not reveal the underlying genome-wide differences between strains.


METHODS
We used comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) with 70-mer oligonucleotide microarrays containing open reading frames (ORFs) from S. mutans strain UA159 to examine the genetic diversity of 44 isolates from nine children selected from a local study population in Eastern Iowa.


RESULTS
Unique strains (clones) within each child initially identified by arbitrary-priming polymerase chain reaction were confirmed by CGH. There was a wide range of variation in the hybridization patterns of the 1948 ORFs among the test isolates examined. Between 87 and 237 ORFs failed to give a positive signal among individual isolates. A total of 323 of the UA159 ORFs were absent from one or more of the test strains. These 323 variable genes seemed to be distributed across the entire UA159 genome and across all the predicted functional categories.


CONCLUSIONS
This set of very close geographically and temporally collected S. mutans isolates had a degree of gene content variation as high as a previously examined global set of strains. Comparing the frequency of these variable genes, the majority of which have unknown function, among strains of different origins (i.e. different caries status) could help to determine their relevance in S. mutans cariogenicity.
Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. lxzhang@umich.edu
L
L
Zhang
B
B
Foxman
D R
DR
Drake
U
U
Srinivasan
J
J
Henderson
B
B
Olson
C F
CF
Marrs
J J
JJ
Warren
M L
ML
Marazita
D002675:Child, Preschool; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D055028:Comparative Genomic Hybridization; D004245:DMF Index; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000382:microbiology*; D018740:Genetic Heterogeneity; D014644:Genetic Variation / Q000235:genetics; D016680:Genome, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007484:Iowa; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D016366:Open Reading Frames / Q000235:genetics; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013295:Streptococcus mutans / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D014774:Virulence / Q000235:genetics