INTERSPECIES COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE HUMAN DENTAL PLAQUE BACTERIA STREPTOCOCC

本子项目是利用由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源的众多研究子项目之一。子项目和研究者（PI）可能已经从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。列出的机构是中心的，不一定是研究者的机构。人类口腔生物膜，牙菌斑，是一个公认的多物种细菌群落的例子。埃格兰博士的研究重点是研究构成牙菌斑的不同种类细菌之间的交流。这种交流包括细胞间的接触和生物膜中生物体之间的代谢相互作用。目前的研究重点是发生在斑块群落的两种成员之间的交流，非典型微孔菌和戈登链球菌。当这些生物体一起生长时，gordonii诱导α -淀粉酶基因的表达，而当gordonii在没有异型弧菌的情况下生长时，该基因不表达。目的是确定这些物种之间发生的信号传导机制，并确定淀粉酶表达对混合物种群落发展的重要性。在未来，基因组学和蛋白质组学方法将被用于鉴定由种间交流诱导的其他基因。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The human oral biofilm, dental plaque, is a well-recognized example of multi-species bacterial community. Dr. Egland's research lies in the study of communication between different species of bacteria that compose dental plaque. This communication includes cell-cell contact and metabolic interactions between organisms in the biofilm. The current research focus is communication that occurs between two members of the plaque community, Veillonella atypica and Streptococcus gordonii. When these organisms are growing together, S. gordonii induces expression of an alpha-amylase gene that is not expressed when S. gordonii is grown without V. atypica. The goals are to identify the mechanism of signaling that occurs between these species and determine the importance of amylase expression to development of the mixed-species community. In the future, genomic and proteomic approaches will be used to identify other genes that are induced by interspecies communication.