{
  "abstract": "Background: Dental caries is increasingly understood as an ecological biofilm disorder rather than the consequence of a single organism. Although Streptococcus mutans is strongly implicated in cariogenesis, it remains unclear whether caries-associated plaque-community differences persist beyond this organism. Methods: We reanalysed publicly available supragingival-plaque 16S rRNA sequencing data from 88 preschool children with rampant caries (n=44) or who were caries-free (n=44; BioProject PRJNA1141721). Single-end DADA2 processing yielded 25,669 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), including one ASV confirmed as S. mutans by an eHOMD reference-window procedure. The pre-specified primary analysis compared Bray-Curtis community composition after exclusion of this ASV. Results: Non-S. mutans community composition differed between groups (PERMANOVA pseudo-R2=0.0462, pseudo-F=4.16, P<0.001), without evidence of unequal multivariate dispersion (P=0.796); rarefaction produced a nearly identical result. Shannon diversity did not differ (P=0.486). The confirmed S. mutans ASV was detected in 8/44 rampant-caries and 42/44 caries-free samples and was lower in abundance in rampant caries. Among 758 prevalence-filtered non-S. mutans ASVs, 239 showed conventional FDR-significant differential abundance, with more showing lower than higher bias-corrected abundance in rampant caries (176 versus 63); 239 additional ASVs were classified as structural zeros. Individual ASV findings were sensitive to prevalence filtering. Adjustment for S. mutans abundance attenuated the global caries-group association (marginal pseudo-R2=0.0149, P=0.085) in the presence of strong collinearity. Conclusions: Rampant caries was associated with modest but reproducible plaque-community restructuring after exclusion of a confirmed S. mutans ASV, without a corresponding Shannon-diversity difference. These findings support a community-level ecological interpretation but do not establish statistical independence from S. mutans or a causal role for individual taxa.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Z. Zhuo"
    },
    {
      "name": "X. XU"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/bp3j35ne6p9nb.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.09.02.748957",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.02.748957v1.full",
  "id": "bp3j35ne6p9nb",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.02.748957v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "microbiology"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3506|Oral microbiology and periodontitis research"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7207516066",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.02.748957v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-02",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/bp3j35ne6p9nb.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:01Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.09.02.748957",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.02.748957v2"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:microbiology",
      "subfield": "microbiology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Plaque microbial community restructuring in rampant dental caries after exclusion of a confirmed Streptococcus mutans ASV: an analysis of public 16S rRNA sequencing data",
  "title_text": "Plaque microbial community restructuring in rampant dental caries after exclusion of a confirmed Streptococcus mutans ASV: an analysis of public 16S rRNA sequencing data",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:19:23Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/bp3j35ne6p9nb",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}