Degradation of chondroitin sulfate A by a PUL-like operon in Tannerella forsythia.

Advanced periodontitis has been shown to have strong association with the residence of the bacterial consortia known as the red complex comprised by Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythia, and Treponema denticola. T. forsythia shares a distant genetic linkage to Bacteroidetes thetaiotaomicron and may therefore produce analogous polysaccharide utilization loci (PUL) which enable complex carbohydrate degradation, import, and use, although this capacity has yet to be demonstrated.