How genetic factors influence variation in the oral microbiota

Dental caries continues to be the most common chronic disease affecting Australian children, despite the implementation of public health initiatives. This presentation aims to review how host genetic and environmental factors drive the critical variation in composition of the oral microbiota, leading to either dental decay or oral health, through the genetic analysis of oral samples from twin cohorts.

Methods:

To demonstrate the links between genes, environment and dental disease, we need to first identify which aspects of the oral microbial community are associated with dental decay. This presentation will review the elusive aetiology of caries and changing estimates of heritability of this disease. Varying results have been produced when the composition of the oral microbial community has been investigated using different types of genetic analyses. These techniques have evolved from traditional methods, which include culture and culture-independent techniques (e.g., cloning), to next-generation sequencing methods that enable in-depth analysis of microbial communities.

Results:

Due to the current lack of in-depth taxonomic information available for the oral microbial community, in both caries and health, we do not have a have a realistic picture of the complex oral microbial ecosystem or what factors control it. To address this issue, we plan to examine how host genetic and environmental factors influence variation in the oral microbiota by conducting an in-depth genetic analysis of oral samples from the Australian twin cohort, which is managed by the Craniofacial Biology Research Group.

Conclusions:

The advancement in genetic techniques has meant there are new opportunities for twin studies to clarify how host and environmental factors shape the oral microbial community structure, and drive the ecosystem towards either health or caries. By revealing how these factors influence the oral microbiota’s composition, this information will be used to identify high caries-risk individuals and direct caries treatment approaches.