Streptococcus mutans is generally considered to be the principal aetiological agent for
dental caries [1, 2], which possesses a variety of mechanisms to colonize tooth surfaces.
Clinical isolates of S. mutans exhibit considerable variations in their genomes or genes [3].
S. mutans species, under certain conditions, is numerically significant in cariogenic
biofilms and forms biofilms with other organisms in the oral cavity [4] after the eruption
and colonization of primary teeth [5]. Furthermore, epidemiologic surveys have confirmed that
higher levels of S. mutans organisms in children are associated with a higher incidence of
decayed, missing, and filled (dmf) teeth [2, 6]. Conversely, it can be found in populations
with no caries or with low caries experience [7, 8]. One possible explanation for their
presence in subjects with low caries experience is that S. mutans virulence factors can
differ between populations with contrasting caries prevalence [9].
Bowden [10] pointed out the necessity for understanding the clonality patterns of S. mutans
in the caries-free subjects where it is important to ascertain whether S. mutans populations
in subjects free of caries exhibit the same clonal diversity of caries-active groups or not
[10].
Several studies have showed genetic heterogeneity among Streptococcus mutans strains [11–16];
however, the relationship between caries activity and the genetic diversity of S. mutans is
still controversial. Alaluusua et al. [17] suggested that caries-active children with high
sucrose consumption carried greater ribotype diversity of S. mutans compared with caries-free
children. Napimoga et al. [18] found that caries-active subjects have more genotypes than
caries-free subjects. On the other hand, Kreulen et al. [19] showed a negative correlation
between caries activity and genotypic diversity.
The aim of the present paper was to evaluate the genotypic diversity of S. mutans in
caries-free and caries-active preschool children in Brazil.
Copyright © 2010 F. J. S. Pieralisi et al. This is an open access article distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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