{"625871":{"#nid":"625871","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Periodontitis Bacteria Love Colon and Dirt Microbes","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETrue or false? Bacteria living in the same space, like the mouth, have evolved collaborations so generous that they are not possible with outside bacteria. That was long held to be true, but\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/early\/2019\/08\/14\/1907619116.short?rss=1\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ein a new, large-scale study\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;of microbial interactions, the resounding answer was \u0026ldquo;false.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EResearch led by the Georgia Institute of Technology found that common mouth bacteria responsible for acute periodontitis fared better overall when paired with bacteria and other microbes that live anywhere but the mouth, including some commonly found in the colon or in dirt. Bacteria from the oral microbiome, by contrast, generally shared food and assistance more stingily with gum infector\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans\u003C\/em\u003E, or\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;for short.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ELike many bacteria known for\u0026nbsp;infections they can cause \u0026ndash; like\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EStrep\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u0026ndash;\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003Eoften live peacefully in the mouth, and certain circumstances turn them into infectors. The researchers and their sponsors at the National Institutes of Health would like to know more about how\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;interacts with other microbes to gain insights that may eventually help fight acute periodontitis and other ailments.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Periodontitis is the most prevalent human infection on the planet after cavities,\u0026rdquo; said\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/biosci.gatech.edu\/people\/marvin-whiteley\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EMarvin Whiteley, a professor in Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s School of Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and the study\u0026rsquo;s principal investigator. \u0026ldquo;Those bugs get into your bloodstream every day, and there has been a long, noted correlation between poor oral hygiene and prevalence of heart disease.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EUnnatural pairing\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe findings are surprising because bacteria in a microbiome have indeed evolved intricate interactions making it seem logical that those interactions would stand out as uniquely generous. Some mouth microbes even have special docking sites to bind to their partners, and much previous research has tightly focused on their cooperations. The new study went broad.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;We asked a bigger question: How do microbes interact with bugs they co-evolved with as opposed to how they would interact with microbes they had hardly ever seen. We thought they would not interact well with the other bugs, but it was the opposite,\u0026rdquo; Whiteley said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe study\u0026rsquo;s scale was massive. Researchers manipulated and tracked nearly all of\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026rsquo;s roughly 2,100 genes using an emergent gene tagging technology while pairing\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;with 25 other microbes \u0026mdash; about half from the mouth and half from other body areas or the environment.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThey did not examine the mouth microbiome as a whole because multi-microbial synergies would have made interactions incalculable. Instead, the researchers paired\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;with one other bug at a time \u0026mdash;\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;plus mouth bacterium X,\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;plus colon bacterium Y,\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;plus dirt fungus Z, and so on.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;We wanted to see specifically which genes\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;needed to survive in each partnership and which ones it could do without because it was getting help from the partner,\u0026rdquo; said\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/whiteleylab.biosci.gatech.edu\/?q=people\/gina\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EGina Lewin, a postdoctoral researcher\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;in Whiteley\u0026rsquo;s lab and the study\u0026rsquo;s first author. They published their results\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/early\/2019\/08\/14\/1907619116.short?rss=1\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ein the\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EQ \u0026amp; A\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch5\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow could they tell that\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;was doing well or poorly with another microbe?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h5\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers looked at each of\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026rsquo;s genes necessary for survival while it infected a mouse -- when\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;was the sole infector, when it partnered with a fellow mouth bacterium and when paired with a microbe from colon, dirt, or skin.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;When\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;was by itself, it needed a certain set of genes to survive \u0026ndash; like for breathing oxygen,\u0026rdquo; Lewin said. \u0026ldquo;It was striking that when\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;was with this or that microbe that it normally didn\u0026rsquo;t live around, it no longer needed a lot of its own genes. The other microbe was giving\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;things that it needed, so it didn\u0026rsquo;t have to make them itself.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Interactions between usual neighbors \u0026mdash; other mouth bacteria \u0026mdash; looked more frugal,\u0026rdquo; Whiteley said. \u0026ldquo;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;needed a lot more of its own genes to survive around them, sometimes more than when it was by itself.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Csup\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003E[Ready for graduate school?\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gradadmiss.gatech.edu\/apply-now\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EHere\u0026#39;s how to apply to Georgia Tech.\u003C\/a\u003E]\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/sup\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch5\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow did the emerging genetic marking method work?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h5\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETo understand \u0026ldquo;transposon sequencing,\u0026rdquo; picture a transposon as a DNA brick that cracks a gene, breaking its function. The brick also sticks to the gene and can be detected by DNA sequencing, thus tagging that malfunction.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EEvery\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;bacterium in a pile of 10,000 had a brick in a random gene. If\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026rsquo;s partner bacterium, say,\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EE. coli,\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;picked up the slack for a broken function,\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;survived and multiplied even with the damaged gene, and researchers detected a higher number of bacteria containing the gene.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;surviving with more broken genes meant a partner microbe was giving it more assistance.\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;bacteria with broken genes that a partner could not compensate for were more likely to die, reducing their count.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch5\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDoes this mean the mouth microbiome does not have unique relationships?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h5\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIt very likely does have them, but the study\u0026rsquo;s results point to not all relationships being cooperative. Some microbiomes could have high fences and share sparsely.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;One friend or enemy may be driving your behavior, and other microbes may just be standing around,\u0026rdquo; Lewin said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESmoking, poor hygiene, or diabetes \u0026mdash; all associated with gum disease \u0026mdash; might be damaging defensive microbiomes and allowing outside bacteria to help\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAa\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;attack gum tissue. It\u0026rsquo;s too early to know that, but Whiteley\u0026rsquo;s lab wants to dig deeper, and the research could have implications for other microbiomes.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch5\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAlso read:\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/rh.gatech.edu\/news\/626754\/test-life-threatening-nutrient-deficit-made-bacteria-entrails\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ETest for Life-Threatening Nutrient Deficit Made From Bacteria Entrails\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h5\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThese researchers coauthored the study: Apollo Stacy from the National Institute of Infectious Diseases and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Kelly Michie from Georgia Tech, and Richard Lamont from the University of Louisville. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health\u0026rsquo;s National Institute of Infectious Diseases (grants R01DE020100, R01DE023193) and the National Institutes of Health (grants F32DE027281, F31DE024931). Any findings, conclusions or recommendations are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Institutes of Health. Whiteley is also a\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cem\u003EGeorgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and Co-Director of Emory-Children\u0026rsquo;s Cystic Fibrosis Center.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWriter \u0026amp;\u0026nbsp;Media Representative\u003C\/strong\u003E: Ben Brumfield (404-660-1408), email:\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Eben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n177 North Avenue\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nAtlanta, Georgia \u0026nbsp;30332-0181 \u0026nbsp;USA\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMythbuster: The idea that bacterial collaborations within microbiomes, like in the mouth, have evolved to be generous and exclusive very much appears to be\u0026nbsp;wrong. In an extensive experiment, lavish collaborations\u0026nbsp;ensued between random\u0026nbsp;microbes. And some bacteria from the same microbiome were stingy with one another.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Mythbuster: Ideas that bacterial collaborations within microbiomes are generous and exclusive appear to be quite wrong."}],"uid":"31759","created_gmt":"2019-09-09 18:49:39","changed_gmt":"2019-10-04 14:46:21","author":"Ben Brumfield","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2019-09-09T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2019-09-09T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"625866":{"id":"625866","type":"image","title":"Periodontitis culprit Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans by CC","body":null,"created":"1568053316","gmt_created":"2019-09-09 18:21:56","changed":"1568053316","gmt_changed":"2019-09-09 18:21:56","alt":"","file":{"fid":"238276","name":"Aa.micro_.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Aa.micro_.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Aa.micro_.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":128082,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Aa.micro_.jpg?itok=Yf3h4HgL"}},"625867":{"id":"625867","type":"image","title":"Researcher looks at culture on dish","body":null,"created":"1568053714","gmt_created":"2019-09-09 18:28:34","changed":"1568053714","gmt_changed":"2019-09-09 18:28:34","alt":"","file":{"fid":"238277","name":"Kelly.looks_.up_.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Kelly.looks_.up_.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Kelly.looks_.up_.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2489389,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Kelly.looks_.up_.jpg?itok=yxJAsLPn"}},"625868":{"id":"625868","type":"image","title":"Anoxic chamber for anaerobic bacterial study","body":null,"created":"1568053977","gmt_created":"2019-09-09 18:32:57","changed":"1568054011","gmt_changed":"2019-09-09 18:33:31","alt":"","file":{"fid":"238278","name":"Kelly.anoxic.tent_.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Kelly.anoxic.tent_.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Kelly.anoxic.tent_.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2673740,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Kelly.anoxic.tent_.jpg?itok=N48dQ2Zn"}}},"media_ids":["625866","625867","625868"],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"56501","name":"microbiome"},{"id":"7077","name":"bacteria"},{"id":"182260","name":"bacterial colonies"},{"id":"182261","name":"Bacteria communication"},{"id":"182262","name":"bacteria community type"},{"id":"7187","name":"fungus"},{"id":"182263","name":"fungal disease"},{"id":"182264","name":"AA"},{"id":"182265","name":"Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans"},{"id":"182266","name":"Periodontal Disease"},{"id":"182267","name":"Periodontitis"},{"id":"182268","name":"oral microbiome"},{"id":"182269","name":"Oral Bacteria"},{"id":"8949","name":"Heart Disease"},{"id":"182270","name":"Gum Disease"},{"id":"182271","name":"transposon insertion"},{"id":"182272","name":"sequencing analysis"},{"id":"182273","name":"genomic sequencing"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71891","name":"Health and Medicine"},{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}