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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, August 2007, p. 2616-2625, Vol. 45, No. 8
0095-1137/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.02343-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Streptococcus mutans Clonal Variation Revealed by Multilocus Sequence Typing

Departments of Pediatric Dentistry,¹ Oral and Molecular Microbiology, Osaka University Graduate School of Dentistry, 1-8 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan,² Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Institute of Dentistry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland,³ Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Diseases,⁴ Division of Clinical Microbiology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland,⁵ Department of Life Science, Nihon University Advanced Research Institute for the Sciences and Humanities, Tokyo 102-0073, Japan,⁶ Division of Bacteriology, Department of Infectious Disease Control, International Research Center for Infectious Diseases, Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 108-8639, Japan,⁷ PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Kawaguchi 332-0012, Japan⁸

Received 19 November 2006/ Returned for modification 9 February 2007/ Accepted 6 June 2007

Streptococcus mutans is the major pathogen of dental caries, a biofilm-dependent infectious disease, and occasionally causes infective endocarditis. S. mutans strains have been classified into four serotypes (c, e, f, and k). However, little is known about the S. mutans population, including the clonal relationships among strains of S. mutans, in relation to the particular clones that cause systemic diseases. To address this issue, we have developed a multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme for S. mutans. Eight housekeeping gene fragments were sequenced from each of 102 S. mutans isolates collected from the four serotypes in Japan and Finland. Between 14 and 23 alleles per locus were identified, allowing us theoretically to distinguish more than 1.2 x 10¹⁰ sequence types. We identified 92 sequence types in these 102 isolates, indicating that S. mutans contains a diverse population. Whereas serotype c strains were widely distributed in the dendrogram, serotype e, f, and k strains were differentiated into clonal complexes. Therefore, we conclude that the ancestral strain of S. mutans was serotype c. No geographic specificity was identified. However, the distribution of the collagen-binding protein gene (cnm) and direct evidence of mother-to-child transmission were clearly evident. In conclusion, the superior discriminatory capacity of this MLST scheme for S. mutans may have important practical implications.

Published ahead of print on 13 June 2007.

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