Batch cultures have predominately been used for the study of physiology and gene expression in mycobacteria. This chapter describes the assembly of chemostats and the methodology that is being used for growing Mycobacterium tuberculosis in continuous culture, which provides the gr ...

The oral cavity harbors several hundred different bacterial species that colonize both hard (teeth) and soft tissues, forming complex populations known as microbial biofilms. It is widely accepted that the phenotypic characteristics of bacteria grown in biofilms are substantia ...

In their natural environments, microorganisms usually live in organized communities. Profiling analysis of microbial communities has recently assumed special relevance as it allows a thorough understanding of the diversity of the microbiota, its behavior over time, and the esta ...

Application of nucleic acid technology to the analysis of the bacterial diversity in the oral cavity in conditions of health and disease has not only confirmed the findings from early culture studies but also significantly expanded the list of oral inhabitants and candidate pathogens ass ...

Azole antifungal drugs are used widely to treat people with oral fungal infections. Unfortunately, fungi can develop resistance to these drugs. This resistance can be due to the overexpression or mutation of cytochrome P450 14α-lanosterol demethylase, also known as ERG11 or CYP51, and/or ...

For over 30 years, the chain termination method of DNA sequencing (commonly known as Sanger sequencing) has been the mainstay of any DNA sequencing project. In the past, whole-genome sequencing employing exclusively Sanger chemistry has been a labor-intensive and costly exercise and an op ...

Porphyromonas gingivalis is a Gram-negative anaerobic bacterium associated with the initiation and progression of adult periodontal disease. The pathogenicity of P. gingivalis is multifaceted and the infection process is influenced by both microbial and host factors. It is gene ...

Natural transformation is found in most groups of oral streptococci, including the mitis, the anginosus, and the mutans groups. This ability has been applied as a powerful tool to explore streptococcal gene functions and regulatory pathways, particularly in Streptococcus mutans and S ...

Most bacteria in nature exist in multispecies communities known as biofilms. In the natural habitat where resources (nutrient, space, etc.) are usually limited, individual species must compete or collaborate with other neighboring species in order to perpetuate in the multispecies c ...

Dentinal tubule invasion protects bacteria from chemo-mechanical disinfection and frequently results in root canal treatment failures. Enterococcus faecalis is a primary causative agent, particularly in persistent, asymptomatic, and chronic apical periodontitis. In o ...

Exploration of the underlying biological mechanisms of disease is useful for many purposes such as the development of novel treatment modalities in addition to informing on-going risk factor research. DNA-microarray technology is a relatively recent and novel approach to conduct ...

Both botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) and anthrax lethal factor, a component of anthrax toxin, exhibit zinc metalloprotease activity. The assay detailed here is capable of quantitatively detecting these proteins by measuring their enzymatic functions with high sensitivity. The d ...

Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) is an established nucleic acid amplification method offering rapid, accurate, and cost-effective diagnosis of infectious diseases. The LAMP assay requires 12–18 min for amplification with a single colony on selective agar from ch ...

Bacterial protein toxins are involved in a number of infectious and foodborne diseases and are considered as potential biological warfare agents as well. Their sensitive multiplex detection in complex environmental, food, and biological samples are an important although challe ...

Saliva is an ideal translational research tool and diagnostic medium and is being used in novel ways to provide molecular biomarkers for a variety of oral and systemic diseases and conditions. The ability to analyze saliva to monitor health and disease is a highly desirable goal for oral health pr ...

Salivary biomarkers for diagnostic and prognostic assessments have become increasingly well established in recent years. Salivary mRNA transcriptomic analyses create a new paradigm in the emerging field for noninvasive molecular diagnosis. In this chapter, we will overview t ...

Saliva harbors a wide spectrum of proteins that may reflect the health/disease status in the human body. Profiling of the proteins in saliva from a disease population can potentially yield valuable clinical parameters to be used for diagnosis and prognosis of the disease. Advances in proteo ...

Colonization of surfaces in the human body by microorganisms is an early, essential, step in the initiation of infectious disease. We have developed in vitro assays to investigate interactions between yeast or bacterial cells and human tissues, fluids, or prostheses. Such assays can be used to ...

The techniques for the establishment of primary gingival and periodontal ligament fibroblast cultures have been well established for over 30 years. It is only more recently, with the commercial availability of real-time PCR (RT-PCR) gene arrays that the expression profiles of up to 84 genes ...

Gene expression profiling, i.e., the systematic cataloging of messenger RNA sequences in a cell population, organ, or tissue sample, is a powerful means of generating comprehensive genome-level data sets on complex diseases. We have recently applied a systematic transcriptome-based ...