Impact of Dietary Sugars on Oral Microbiome Diversity and Composition
Open Access
- Author:
- Caissie, Matthew
- Area of Honors:
- Biological Anthropolgy
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Laura S Weyrich, Thesis Supervisor
Laurel Nichole Pearson, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- microbiome
diversity
composition
cavities
oral microbiome transplant
carbohydrates
sugars - Abstract:
- The human oral microbiome is a complex and dynamic ecosystem that has significant effects on oral health. The oral microbiome plays a central role in the development of dental caries, as it can provide a suitable environment for the colonization and growth of cariogenic bacteria. One potential new therapeutic for dental caries is an oral microbiome transplant (OMT). With this treatment, it is very important to effectively select donors that will provide healthy samples to recipients. Here, we investigate the effect of certain dietary factors on the diversity and composition of the oral microbiome. From a pool of 60 donor samples, we analyzed differences among samples based on varied consumption of carbohydrates, sugars, then more specifically fructose, sucrose, and lactose. We found that increased consumption of both sugars as a whole and fructose specifically are associated with decreased oral microbiome diversity (H=2.098, q=0.1475) (H=3.746, q=0.0529) (Table 1). We also found significant differences in oral microbiome composition across groups of varied sugar and fructose consumption (F=2.056, q=0.04) (F =3.352, q=0.006) (Table 2). This significance of fructose consumption remains after accounting for influencing factors like smoking and gender. These results suggest that the consumption of sugars, especially fructose, play an important role in being able to successfully screen for OMT donors. We hope that this research will lead to more improved techniques for the prevention and treatment of dental caries.