Interkingdom assemblages in human saliva display group-level surface mobility and disease-promoting emergent functions.

ABSTRACT: Fungi and bacteria often engage in complex interactions, such as the formation of multicellular biofilms within the human body. Knowledge about how interkingdom biofilms initiate and coalesce into higher-level communities and which functions the different species carry out during biofilm formation remain limited. We found native-state assemblages of Candida albicans (fungi) and Streptococcus mutans (bacteria) with highly structured arrangement in saliva from diseased patients with childhood tooth decay. Further analyses revealed that bacterial clusters are attached within a network of fungal yeasts, hyphae, and exopolysaccharides, which bind to surfaces as a preassembled cell group. The interkingdom assemblages exhibit emergent functions, including enhanced surface colonizati

SUBMITTER: Ren Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9565521 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature