Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24824668›Full record

ArticleThe ISME journal2014

Cross-feeding and interkingdom communication in dual-species biofilms of Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans.

Helena Sztajer, Szymon P Szafranski, Jürgen Tomasch, Michael Reck, Manfred Nimtz, Manfred Rohde, Irene Wagner-Döbler

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The ISME journal, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 130 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
130citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
10.8field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

130 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 230 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Review
  3. Review
  4. Review
  5. Review
  6. Article
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  17. Effects of snake fungal disease (ophidiomycosis) on the skin microbiome across two major experimental scales.Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · 2025
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  18. Article
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  20. Interactions between non-Journal of oral microbiology · 2025
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70 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Helena SztajerResearch Group Microbial Communication, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany.
Szymon P SzafranskiResearch Group Microbial Communication, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany.
Jürgen TomaschResearch Group Microbial Communication, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany.
Michael ReckResearch Group Microbial Communication, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany.
Manfred NimtzResearch Group Proteomics, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany.
Manfred RohdeCentral Facility for Microscopy, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany.
Irene Wagner-DöblerResearch Group Microbial Communication, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany.
Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Polymicrobial biofilms are of large medical importance, but relatively little is known about the role of interspecies interactions for their physiology and virulence. Here, we studied two human pathogens co-occuring in the oral cavity, the opportunistic fungus Candida albicans and the caries-promoting bacterium Streptococcus mutans. Dual-species biofilms reached higher biomass and cell numbers than mono-species biofilms, and the production of extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) by S. mutans was strongly suppressed, which was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and transcriptome analysis. To detect interkingdom communication, C. albicans was co-cultivated with a strain of S. mutans carrying a transcriptional fusion between a green fluorescent protein-encoding gene and the promoter for sigX, the alternative sigma factor of S. mutans, which is induced by quorum sensing signals. Strong induction of sigX was observed in dual-species biofilms, but not in single-species biofilms. Conditioned media from mixed biofilms but not from C. albicans or S. mutans cultivated alone activated sigX in the reporter strain. Deletion of comS encoding the synthesis of the sigX-inducing peptide precursor abolished this activity, whereas deletion of comC encoding the competence-stimulating peptide precursor had no effect. Transcriptome analysis of S. mutans confirmed induction of comS, sigX, bacteriocins and the downstream late competence genes, including fratricins, in dual-species biofilms. We show here for the first time the stimulation of the complete quorum sensing system of S. mutans by a species from another kingdom, namely the fungus C. albicans, resulting in fundamentally changed virulence properties of the caries pathogen.

Indexed as

BiofilmsBacterial ProteinsBacteriocinsCandida albicansPolysaccharides, BacterialQuorum SensingSigma FactorStreptococcus mutansBacterial ProteinsBacteriocinsPolysaccharides, BacterialSigma Factor

Identifiers

PMID24824668
PMCPMC4992082
OpenAlexW2076461284

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.