ArticleScientific reports2016
Simultaneous spatiotemporal mapping of in situ pH and bacterial activity within an intact 3D microcolony structure.
Article in Scientific reports, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers.
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Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed, 94 citations in OpenAlex.
- Modulating Oral Microbiota to Prevent Dental Caries: A Microbial Ecology Approach.Dentistry journal · 2026Review
- Unraveling Oral Dysbiosis: Microbial Complexity in Common Oral Diseases.MicrobiologyOpen · 2026Review
- Role of sucrose-dependent exopolysaccharides in the biofilm development ofApplied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Oral hygiene agents at work: effects onFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- Mechanisms of caries induced by sugars: a narratives review from microbial metabolism to oral ecological imbalance and public health strategies for caries prevention.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- Artemisinins inhibited the synergistic cariogenic effect betweenFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- Synergistic action of specialized metabolites from divergent biosynthesis in the human oral microbiome.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Inter-kingdom interactions and environmental influences on the oral microbiome in severe early childhood caries.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Population-level control of two manganese oxidases expands the niche for bacterial manganese biomineralization.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
- pH-FISH: coupled microscale analysis of microbial identity and acid-base metabolism in complex biofilm samples.Microbiome · 2024Article
- Real-time acid production and extracellular matrix formation in mature biofilms of threeBiofilm · 2024Article
- The DIAD Approach to Correlative Synchrotron X-ray Imaging and Diffraction Analysis of Human Enamel.Chemical & biomedical imaging · 2024Article
- Advanced Time-Stepping Interpretation of Fly-Scan Continuous Rotation Synchrotron Tomography of Dental Enamel Demineralization.Chemical & biomedical imaging · 2024Article
- The Antimicrobial Potential of the Hop (Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Inhibitory effect of helium cold atmospheric plasma on cariogenic biofilms.Journal of oral microbiology · 2024Article
- Effects of DJK-5 and chlorhexidine on exopolysaccharide volume and pH in oral biofilms.BMC oral health · 2023Article
- Potential Clinical Application of Organs-on-a-Chip in Periodontal Diseases: A Systematic Review of In Vitro Studies.Dentistry journal · 2023Review
- Time-Lapse In Situ 3D Imaging Analysis of Human Enamel Demineralisation Using X-ray Synchrotron Tomography.Dentistry journal · 2023Article
- Synchrotron X-ray Studies of the Structural and Functional Hierarchies in Mineralised Human Dental Enamel: A State-of-the-Art Review.Dentistry journal · 2023Review
- Formation and emergent dynamics of spatially organized microbial systems.Interface focus · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Biofilms are comprised of bacterial-clusters (microcolonies) enmeshed in an extracellular matrix. Streptococcus mutans can produce exopolysaccharides (EPS)-matrix and assemble microcolonies with acidic microenvironments that can cause tooth-decay despite the surrounding neutral-pH found in oral cavity. How the matrix influences the pH and bacterial activity locally remains unclear. Here, we simultaneously analyzed in situ pH and gene expression within intact biofilms and measured the impact of damage to the surrounding EPS-matrix. The spatiotemporal changes of these properties were characterized at a single-microcolony level following incubation in neutral-pH buffer. The middle and bottom-regions as well as inner-section within the microcolony 3D structure were resistant to neutralization (vs. upper and peripheral-region), forming an acidic core. Concomitantly, we used a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter to monitor expression of the pH-responsive atpB (PatpB::gfp) by S. mutans within microcolonies. The atpB expression was induced in the acidic core, but sharply decreased at peripheral/upper microcolony regions, congruent with local pH microenvironment. Enzymatic digestion of the surrounding matrix resulted in nearly complete neutralization of microcolony interior and down-regulation of atpB. Altogether, our data reveal that biofilm matrix facilitates formation of an acidic core within microcolonies which in turn activates S. mutans acid-stress response, mediating both the local environment and bacterial activity in situ.
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