Denitrification in human dental plaque.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Microbial denitrification is not considered important in human-associated microbial communities. Accordingly, metabolic investigations of the microbial biofilm communities of human dental plaque have focused on aerobic respiration and acid fermentation of carbohydrates, even though it is known that the oral habitat is constantly exposed to nitrate (NO3-) concentrations in the millimolar range and that dental plaque houses bacteria that can reduce this NO3- to nitrite (NO2-).

Results

We show that dental plaque mediates denitrification of NO3- to nitric oxide (NO), nitrous oxide (N2O), and dinitrogen (N2) using microsensor measurements, 15N isotopic labelling and molecular detection of denitrification genes. In vivo N2O accumulation rates in the mouth depended on th

SUBMITTER: Schreiber F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2859859 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature