Tongue in Check

Our mouths are crawling with bacteria – on the insides of our cheeks, swirling in our saliva and, seen here, in a living biofilm lining the tongue. While some of these bacteria are helpful – attacking pathogens or limiting tooth decay, others may build into plaques if the careful balance is disturbed. Investigating our oral bacteriome, and how its different communities are arranged, scientists examined different tongues. Using a form of fluorescence in situ hybridisation they highlight various types of bacteria in different colours – revealing how they cluster into organised groups or ‘consortia’. Scientists believe these mosaic patterns arise from a battle for territory between different microbes as they adapt to the mouth’s environment – itself constantly changing through our lives, shaped by meals, dental hygiene routines and illness. These studies also reveal that our tongue specifically helps to nurture bacteria that provide us with nitric oxide, essential for our circulatory system.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image from work by Steven A. Wilbert and colleagues
• The Forsyth Institute, Cambridge, MA and Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, USA
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
• Published in Cell Reports, March 2020