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. 2017 Dec 20;7(24):e2655.
doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.2655.

Oral Microbiome Characterization in Murine Models

Loreto Abusleme  1 , Bo-Young Hong  2 , Anilei Hoare  2 , Joanne E Konkel  3   4 , Patricia I Diaz  2 , Niki M Moutsopoulos  1
Affiliations

Oral Microbiome Characterization in Murine Models

Loreto Abusleme et al. Bio Protoc. .

Abstract

The oral microbiome has been implicated as a trigger for immune responsiveness in the oral cavity, particularly in the setting of the inflammatory disease periodontitis. The protocol presented here is aimed at characterizing the oral microbiome in murine models at steady state and during perturbations of immunity or physiology. Herein, we describe murine oral microbiome sampling procedures, processing of low biomass samples and subsequent microbiome characterization based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing.

Keywords: 16S rRNA gene sequencing; Gingival microbiome; Microbiome sequencing; Mouse oral sampling; Murine oral microbiota; Oral microbiome.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors do not have any conflict of interest or competing interests to declare.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Oral swab sample collection.
A. Hand positioning when handling the mouse for sampling, opening its mouth without touching it. B. Swab placement in the oral cavity, sampling tongue and buccal surfaces.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Gingival tissue collection.
A. Dissection of palatal gingival tissue around molar teeth from mouse maxilla. B. Enlarged view of the excised gingival tissue.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Most abundant OTUs in oral microbial communities from gingival tissues and oral mucosal surfaces.
Example data from 10-week-old C57BL6 mice (n = 10).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.. PCoA graph based on Theta YC distances
. Samples from gingival and mucosal tissues cluster separately, indicating they harbor microbiomes with distinct global community structures (P < 0.001, determined by AMOVA).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Abusleme L. and Moutsopoulos N. M.(2016). IL-17: overview and role in oral immunity and microbiome. Oral Dis. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Belkaid Y. and Harrison O. J.(2017). Homeostatic Immunity and the Microbiota. Immunity 46(4): 562-576. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dutzan N., Abusleme L., Bridgeman H., Greenwell-Wild T., Zangerle-Murray T., Fife M. E., Bouladoux N., Linley H., Brenchley L., Wemyss K., Calderon G., Hong B. Y., Break T. J., Bowdish D. M., Lionakis M. S., Jones S. A., Trinchieri G., Diaz P. I., Belkaid Y., Konkel J. E. and Moutsopoulos N. M.(2017). On-going mechanical damage from mastication drives homeostatic Th17 cell responses at the oral barrier. Immunity 46(1): 133-147. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dutzan N., Abusleme L., Konkel J. E. and Moutsopoulos N. M.(2016). Isolation, characterization and functional examination of the gingival immune cell network. J Vis Exp(108): 53736. - PMC - PubMed

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