This genomic study was undertaken to identify the normal healthy microflora of the human salivary microbiome. Bacteria often enter the human body via the oral cavity, and therefore, the interaction between saliva biomes, and the intestinal tract of healthy individuals has an important role in the study of population structure, and migrations.
Analysis of human DNA shows that ‘when humans migrate, they take their bacteria with them’. The ability to study this using DNA from saliva would simplify the process rather than from a biopsy. Saliva samples were taken from various global locations.
Enterobacter was present in 28% of sequences from the Congo, as were several other genera, but were absent elsewhere. The researchers suggest that further sampling would need to be undertaken to ‘determine if these genera are truly characteristic of these particular locations’.
Although the results of the study did not provide substantial variance in the salivary microbiome to determine the human geographic origin, it has provided a ‘frame work for further studies of human microbiome diversity and for investigations of the environmental, dietary, and genetic factors that influence an individual’s salivary microbiome’.
http://genome.cshlp.org/search?fulltext=salivary+microbiome&submit=yes&x=19&y=14
Reference
Nasidze, I et al (2009) ‘Global diversity in the human salivary microbiome’ Genome Research, Vol19, No 4, pp. 636-643.Journal
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