title: Saliva microbiota carry caries-specific functional gene signatures.
abstract: Human saliva microbiota is phylogenetically divergent among host individuals yet their roles in health and disease are poorly appreciated. We employed a microbial functional gene microarray, HuMiChip 1.0, to reconstruct the global functional profiles of human saliva microbiota from ten healthy and ten caries-active adults. Saliva microbiota in the pilot population featured a vast diversity of functional genes. No significant distinction in gene number or diversity indices was observed between healthy and caries-active microbiota. However, co-presence network analysis of functional genes revealed that caries-active microbiota was more divergent in non-core genes than healthy microbiota, despite both groups exhibited a similar degree of conservation at their respective core genes. Furthermore, functional gene structure of saliva microbiota could potentially distinguish caries-active patients from healthy hosts. Microbial functions such as Diaminopimelate epimerase, Prephenate dehydrogenase, Pyruvate-formate lyase and N-acetylmuramoyl-L-alanine amidase were significantly linked to caries. Therefore, saliva microbiota carried disease-associated functional signatures, which could be potentially exploited for caries diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Oral Research Center, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, Qingdao, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Shandong Key Laboratory of Energy Genetics, CAS Key Laboratory of Biofuels and BioEnergy Genome Center, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Kang
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ning
authors.affiliation: Shandong Key Laboratory of Energy Genetics, CAS Key Laboratory of Biofuels and BioEnergy Genome Center, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Xingzhi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Oral Research Center, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, Qingdao, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, United States of America.
authors.forename: Qichao
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, United States of America.
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, United States of America.
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, United States of America.
authors.forename: Christopher L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Hemme
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, United States of America.
authors.forename: Joy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van Nostrand
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, University of California, Riverside, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Xinping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, United States of America.
authors.forename: Zhili
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Oral Research Center, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, Qingdao, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Zhenggang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Oral Research Center, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, Qingdao, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Dawei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Oral Research Center, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, Qingdao, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Jiangbo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Oral Research Center, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, Qingdao, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jizhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Shandong Key Laboratory of Energy Genetics, CAS Key Laboratory of Biofuels and BioEnergy Genome Center, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000382:microbiology*; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D064307:Microbiota / Q000235:genetics*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012463:Saliva / Q000382:microbiology*; D013045:Species Specificity; D055815:Young Adult