Cells of several species of oral microorganisms have been shown, in earlier studies, to be aggregated by saliva. In the present study some of the basic properties of the aggregation system are examined. The observation is made that the saliva-induced aggregates of Streptococcus sanguis and S. mitis can be dissociated to stable particles which consist of about 100 cells and have a median diamete...

Cell-to-cell interaction (coaggregation) between Propionibacterium acnes PK93 and Streptococcus sanguis DL1 was measured on saliva-coated hydroxyapatite beads (SHA) at bacterial concentrations between 1.3 X 10(6) and 6.7 X 10(8) cells per ml. Four hundredfold more DL1 than PK93 cells adhered to the saliva-coated beads, and the adherence of S. sanguis was proportional to cell input. SHA precoate...

In early dental plaque formation, oral primary colonizers such as Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sanguis and Actinomyces viscosus are initially attached to the pellicle-coated tooth surface to form a biofilm. The study aimed to determine the efficacy of macelignan, isolated from nutmeg (Myristica fragrans Houtt.), in removing each single oral primary biofilm in vitro on a polystyrene 96-we...

Seven strains of viridans streptococci of the species Streptococcus sanguis, S. mutans and S. mitis were investigated for autolysis. The effect of pH, salt concentration and temperature on the autolytic process was studied in Na2HPO4/NaH2PO4 buffer. Whole cells and walls of all strains autolysed most rapidly at pH values above 7. Autolysis of whole cells of S. sanguis and one strain of S. mitis...

A model system for testing the helper plasmid cloning system of Gryczan et al. (Mol. Gen. Genet. 177:459-467, 1980) was devised for the Streptococcus sanguis (Challis) host-vector system. In this system, linearized pVA736 plasmid efficiently transformed an S. sanguis (Challis) host containing a homologous plasmid, pVA380-1, but did not transform a plasmidless host or a host containing a nonhomo...