We have to beware of toxic tongues … But what about tongues full of microbes? Maybe not so much. We say this because of studying at the University of Cambridge. You have conducted the most detailed microbiota study in our language to date. The results are surprising. You may not believe it, but 756 different types of microbes live in your mouth. There are hundreds of microbes in human speech.
The results, published in the magazine CellsonThey are surprising both in number and in distribution. Apparently, the complex microbiota that we house in this oral organ prefers to exist alongside its congeners.
Neighborhoods of microbes
Microbes influence their neighbors by acting as a source or sink for metabolites, nutrients and inhibitory molecules. This made it difficult to understand its distribution in our language. When they thrive in a certain niche, the bacteria clump together. When one of them divides, the two resulting cells usually stay together. This is the first step in forming one Clusters, or group ”. Says the biologist at the University of Chicago, Jessika Mark Welch. She is a co-author of the study.
The microbiota of the human oral cavity contains up to 756 types of microbes. Analysis of the most common microorganisms could be particularly useful to take an X-ray of the predominant bacteria.
How they are grouped
The researchers took speech samples from 21 healthy volunteers. With fluorescent labels, they identified certain groups of bacteria. Each of them is responsible for the production of nutrients for our body. They identified up to 17 types of bacteria that normally appear on the tongue. Without exception, the bacterial groups remained closely together between members of the same genus and in some cases of the same species.
Of these 17 genres, they identified 3 that were present in all individuals who were part of the study: Actinomyces, Rothia y Streptococcus. The former seemed to have a certain distribution. It is located in certain regions near the central part of the epithelial cells. That of the genre Rothia They were identified by the formation of large spots on the outside of the epithelium and among other microbial communities. Bacteria of the genus Streptococcus it formed a thin crust on the edge of the mouth.
Let us beware of toxic languages … because we will not be able to escape the microbes of language.
