Question

Streptococcus Mutans

• Describe the species listed above in your own words, be sure to list a reference.
• Additionally, provide five unique facts about the species, such as shape or pathway, and explain WHY this is important or special to this species.

Answer 1

Streptococcus mutans is a pathogen of dental caries, is known to be associated with bacteremia and infective endocarditis (IE). It is a Gram-positive facultative anaerobic bacterium and round in shape. It commonly found in human oral cavity and is a significant contributor to tooth decay.

It has been reported that dental caries in children occurs more frequently in those who possess a high number of S. mutans organisms. A 3-year cohort study was carried out with 252 preschool children for early identification of caries-active individuals. At the baseline examinations, mutans streptococci organisms were detected in 43% of the children, while the detection frequency of other bacteria was low (11.5%) in caries-active sites.

Unique facts

1. Bacteria can live almost any oral environment, whether it has a drastic temperature (18-40 degrees celsius) change, lots of moisture in the environment and even a high pH change.

2 It is infectious and transmittable, therefore it can cause cavities in one persons mouth and then jump on over to someone else's mouth and cause a cavity for them too.

3 This bacteria can produce acid in the oral cavity which can distruct the tooth hard tissue structure and result in development of dental plaque.

4 Its genome is composed of about 1900 different genes, and 200 of those genes are special and unique to species.

5 It is an oral bacteria that is found everyone's mouth that makes up 30-60% of bacteria in your mouth.

Reference : Biomedical Sciences