Probing the diversity of healthy oral microbiome with bioinformatics approaches

Ji-Hoi Moon, Jae-Hyung Lee
2016 BMB Reports  
The human oral cavity contains a highly personalized microbiome essential to maintaining health, but capable of causing oral and systemic diseases. Thus, an in-depth definition of "healthy oral microbiome" is critical to understanding variations in disease states from preclinical conditions, and disease onset through progressive states of disease. With rapid advances in DNA sequencing and analytical technologies, population-based studies have documented the range and diversity of both taxonomic
more » ... compositions and functional potentials observed in the oral microbiome in healthy individuals. Besides factors specific to the host, such as age and race/ethnicity, environmental factors also appear to contribute to the variability of the healthy oral microbiome. Here, we review bioinformatic techniques for metagenomic datasets, including their strengths and limitations. In addition, we summarize the interpersonal and intrapersonal diversity of the oral microbiome, taking into consideration the recent large-scale and longitudinal studies, including the Human Microbiome Project. [BMB Reports 2016; 49(12): 662-670]
doi:10.5483/bmbrep.2016.49.12.164 pmid:27697111 pmcid:PMC5346311 fatcat:mx3wrwj3orgg3m5qqtzd2q2z2y