Furthermore, the human mouth is a relatively stable ecosystem regarding temperature and saliva as a nutrient source. The contact of the oral cavity with external microbial sources is highest in the first years of selleck products human life [18], and is mostly limited to microorganisms in food or drinking water at a later age. Sample-specific profiles within individual oral microbiomes Even at the phylum level, distinct differences among various intraoral sites were observed, e.g. Firmicutes dominated the cheek mucosa of volunteers S1 and S3, while the relatively minor phylum, candidate division TM7, was overrepresented at the approximal sites of volunteer S1 and on incisor buccal and incisor approximal surfaces

of volunteer S3 (Figure 5). Figure 5 Average and site-specific relative distribution of bacterial phyla in three individuals. Average and site-specific relative distribution of bacterial phyla in three individuals (S1, S2 and S3). Unclassified bacteria were reads without a recognizable match in the full 16S rRNA reference database. PF-6463922 supplier Sample legend: B – buccal, L – lingual, Appr – approximal surface of either an incisor (a front tooth) or a molar tooth. Fifteen taxa were found at all sites in all three individuals: thegenera Streptococcus, Neisseria, Corynebacterium, Rothia, Actinomyces, Haemophilus,

Prevotella, Fusobacterium, Granulicatella, Capnocytophaga, representatives of the Veillonellaceae, Neisseriaceae and Pasteurellaceae families, the Bacteroidales order and unclassified Firmicutes. Unclassified Bacteria and an additional four taxa were found

in all but one sample: IMP dehydrogenase genus Porphyromonas, Leptotrichia, TM7 genera incertae sedis and Campylobacter (Additional file 6). As mentioned above (Figure 2), a few sequences dominated each individual microbiome. Three of the sequences were found across all 29 samples that originated from three individuals: two Veillonellaceae family members (phylum Firmicutes) and one Fusobacterium genus member (phylum Fusobacteria). This latter ubiquitous sequence accounted for 34% of Fusobacterium reads and for 1% of the total reads (Additional file 5). The latter finding is especially interesting in the light of the central role fusobacteria play in mediating coaggregation of non-aggregating microbiota and their importance as a structural component of both healthy and disease-associated dental plaque [19]. Within an individual oral cavity, 36 – 51% of the unique sequences were found solely in a single sample and mostly at a low abundance. About 600-750 sequences per individual were found only once. Among these, numerous representatives of commensal oral microorganisms, as well as non-commensal microbiota, such as Vibrio, Salinivibrio and other Gammaproteobacteria were present. Even though these sequences were found as singletons in a particular microbiome, they had to be present at least five times across all three microbiomes according to the cut-off we applied.