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Abstract
Oral diseases including periodontal disease and caries are some of the most prevalent infectious diseases in humans. Different microbial species cohabitate and form a polymicrobial biofilm called dental plaque in the oral cavity. Metagenomics using next generation sequencing technologies has produced bacterial profiles and genomic profiles to study the relationships between microbial diversity, genetic variation, and oral diseases. Several oral metagenomic studies have examined the oral microbiome of periodontal disease and caries. Gene annotations in these studies support the association of specific genes or metabolic pathways with oral health and with specific diseases. The roles of pathogenic species and functions of specific genes in oral disease development have been recognized by metagenomic analysis. A model is proposed in which three levels of interactions occur in the oral microbiome that determines oral health or disease.
Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest
No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Drs Todd Kitten and Xiuchun Ge for discussions and suggestions. We have tried to present a comprehensive review of the field, and we apologize to all colleagues whose work we may have overlooked. Research in the author laboratory is supported by grants R01DE018138 (P.X.) and R01DE023078 (P.X.) from the National Institutes of Health.