Oral commensal Prevotella species and Fusobacterium nucleatum: Identification and potential pathogenic role

....................................................................................................................... 6 LIST OF ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS ......................................................................... 8 ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................ 9 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 10 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ................................................................................ 11 The oral cavity as a habitat for bacterial colonization........................................................ 11 Bacterial populations in the oral cavity .............................................................................. 11 Oral bacterial colonization in children ............................................................................... 12 Attachment and coaggregation in oral bacterial colonization ............................................ 13 Oral cultivable Gram-negative anaerobes .......................................................................... 14 Prevotella and Porphyromonas ...................................................................................... 14 Fusobacterium nucleatum .............................................................................................. 16 Identification of oral Gram-negative anaerobes................................................................. 16 Phenotypic characteristics useful in identification......................................................... 17 Molecular methods for identification ............................................................................. 18 Population structure and dynamics within oral commensals ............................................. 19 Transmission and translocation of oral bacteria................................................................. 20 Virulence and virulence factors.......................................................................................... 22 Virulence factors of Gram-negative anaerobes .............................................................. 23 Oral bacteria and diseases .................................................................................................. 24 Gram-negative anaerobes and diseases .......................................................................... 25 WORKING HYPOTHESES AND AIMS OF THE STUDY........................................ 28 Working hypotheses ........................................................................................................... 28 Aims ................................................................................................................................... 28 MATERIAL AND METHODS ....................................................................................... 29 Subjects, sample collection, and primary cultures ............................................................. 29 Clinical isolates and reference strains ................................................................................ 29 Development of identifications schemes (I)....................................................................... 32 Hemagglutination assays (II, III, unpublished) .................................................................. 33