Racial Differences in the Oral Microbiome: Data from Low-Income Populations of African Ancestry and European AncestryOriginal paper
Karen Pendergrass is a microbiome researcher specializing in microbiome-targeted interventions (MBTIs). She systematically analyzes scientific literature to identify microbial patterns, develop hypotheses, and validate interventions. As the founder of the Microbiome Signatures Database, she bridges microbiome research with clinical practice. In 2012, based on her own investigative research, she became the first documented case of FMT for Celiac Disease, four years before the first published case study.
Read MoreWhat was studied?
Researchers compared the oral microbiome of African-Americans and European-Americans using mouth rinse samples from a large, low-income cohort. The study drew on 1,058 African-American and 558 European-American participants from the Southern Community Cohort Study.
How was it studied?
Deep sequencing of 16S rRNA genes characterized bacterial community composition in each sample. Species richness and overall composition were compared between racial groups using Faith's phylogenetic diversity index, weighted UniFrac distance (MiRKAT), and regression models with Bonferroni correction.
What did they find?
African-Americans showed significantly higher species richness and a distinct overall microbiome composition compared to European-Americans. Thirty-two bacterial taxa differed significantly in abundance or prevalence between groups, with African-Americans showing more Bacteroidetes and less Actinobacteria and Firmicutes. Four periodontal pathogens, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Prevotella intermedia, Treponema denticola, and Filifactor alocis, were more prevalent in African-Americans, and all 32 differential taxa correlated with percentage of genetic African ancestry.
Why it matters
These findings identify a racial difference in oral microbiome composition, including pathogens linked to periodontal disease. The authors say this warrants further research into how oral microbiome differences contribute to health disparities.