Rothia isolates collected from pooled human saliva
Rothia spp. are Gram-positive, pleomorphic, non-motile, non-sporulating facultative anaerobes. The Rothia genus currently consists of 11 valid species from diverse sources ranging from mammalian hosts to natural and built environments. Rothia spp. are broadly recognized as commensal bacteria within the human oral cavity and respiratory tract, but some Rothia strains can also cause opportunistic infections such as endocarditis, pneumonia and septicemia.Recently our group has been studying how human saliva alters the behaviors of oral bacteria. Pooled human saliva (> 2 donors) was purchased from a commercial source - Innovative Research (IRHUSL250ML). The saliva was thawed on ice. Processed human saliva for our experiments would be centrifuged, and supernatant passed through a 0.45 um filter to sterilize and remove all potential microbes. To ensure sterility, a small (0.010 mL) sample is plated before and after processing on BHI agar and incubated at 37C and 5% CO2 for 48 h. Several bacteria colonies arose from our unprocessed, unfiltered samples. We decided to pick and retain these bacterial colonies, giving them a Saliva Ohio State University Isolate (SOSUI) identifier. 16S sequencing was later performed to reveal each isolate's bacterial species identity. We were able to collect a group of Rothia spp. isolates, both Rothia mucilaginosa and Rothia dentocariosa species.Several of the isolates were later chosen to complete de novo whole genome sequencing. Sequencing of the isolates was performed by SeqCenter using their combined Illumnia/Nanopore genome sequencing combo.