Nutritionally Variant Streptococci Interfere with Streptococcus mutans Adhesion Properties and Biofilm Formation.

The bacterial species Streptococcus mutans is known as the main cause of dental caries in humans. Therefore, much effort has focused on preventing oral colonization by this strain or clearing it from oral tissues. The oral cavity is colonized by several bacterial species that constitute the commensal oral flora, but none of these is able to interfere with the cariogenic properties of S.

Characterization of the bacteriolytic activity of nutritionally variant streptococci.

The bacteriolytic activity of nutritionally variant streptococci (NVS), fastidious microaerophilic bacteria, which are members of the genera Abiotrophia and Granulicatella, was characterized in a renaturating SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis system. Bacteriolytic profiles appeared quite different for the three species of NVS examined. Granulicatella adiacens or Abiotrophia defectiva each presented at least seven lytic bands, four of which were in common, while the other three were species-specific, whereas Granulicatella elegans showed six bands, which were overlapping with the G.